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On June 22, Save A Life Foundation (SALF)  was awarded a grant from Ronald McDonald House Charities Global and the Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana Chapter and Chicago Public Schools totaling  $75,000.  The grant will allow SALF to training nearly  8,000 4th and  5th grade children in the Chicagoland  area.

This program, which will extend well into the 2005 calendar year, will center on a core group of students.  For an in-depth listing of all schools involved in Ronald McDonald House sponsored training sessions, please visit www.salf.org.  The main instructor of record will be Sid Blustain, a Chicago Fire EMT veteran and SALF associate of six years.  He will be presenting one-hour classes to the students, which will cover opening an airway, rescue breathing, the Heimlich maneuver for infants, children and adults and an introduction to the automatic external defibrillator (AED), as well as a recap of how to recognize an emergency, notify an EMS professional, scene safety (blood borne pathogens, bio-hazard precautions, etc.) and some basic first aid concepts.

SALF, along with their advocacy of life supporting first aid (LSFA), has posted a very respectable track record to date.  Since the integration of LSFA training programs in local schools in 1998, SALF instructors have trained over 700,000 Illinois students (grade K-12).  With the support of RMHC, and an individualized, personal appearance from long-time McDonald's icon Ronald McDonald, SALF plans to train an additional 1,000 4th graders, in the months of September and October, in the ways and benefits of knowing life supporting first aid.

In order to enhance the message and improve the visibility of the EMS within the community, professional paramedics will teach each assigned class.  Also, as a service to the community and an indicator of the importance of LSFA education, paramedics will be instructing the programs as a free-of-charge service to all local schools, within the applicable area, that are interested in further educating themselves and their students in the potentially live-saving abilities of LSFA training.

"With the support of Chicago Public Schools and RMHC, we can guarantee that our children will live in a safer, better emergency prepared community," said SALF National Communications Director, Dane Neal.