SALF and Chicago Working to Prepare the City and Schools

October 9, 2006

Andrew Velasquez III; Palatine Mayor, Rita Mullins, Andres Durbak

From left to right: La Forice Nealy; Chief Response Officer, American Red Cross of Greater Chicago; Andrew Velasquez III, OEM and Communications Executive Director; Palatine Mayor, Rita Mullins; and Andres Durbak, Chicago Public Schools’ Director of Safety and Security.

Palatine Mayor, Rita Mullins, Save A Life Foundation (SALF) board member, represented SALF at the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) press conference held in Chicago on September 28, 2006. Chicago recognizes the importance of SALF’s efforts to equip citizens with life supporting first aid skills so that they are empowered to help in the event they become bystanders in an emergency. The city is laboring to strategically position itself in such a way as to The Mayor applauded SALF’s mission to teach the children first, providing free training in schools.

OEM and Communications Executive Director, Andrew Velasquez III, remarks, “Planning is something that can happen in corporate conference rooms and local dining rooms, and it will be with this kind of constant effort, exercised in homes, schools and businesses, that we will keep Chicago as safe as any large city can be.” Mayor Mullins concurs with Velasquez stating, “As a nation, we need to realize it is vital to include our children in the preparedness plan. SALF has trained over 1.6 million children since our inception with a retention rate of 97 percent, proving our children have what it takes to contribute to national preparedness