History & Mission

Our Mission

To equip citizens, starting with children (K-12), with basic life supporting first aid (LSFA) skills to empower bystanders in aiding the injured or ill in a time of an emergency.

Our Story

Save A Life Foundation (SALF), is a philanthropic Foundation led by emergency medical service professionals, guided by community leaders through SALF branches; and funded by generous donations, federal and state appropriations.  It is dedicated to training schoolchildren (K-12) at no cost inthe basics of Life Supporting First Aid (LSFA) skills to help prepare for and respond to medical emergencies.

SALF is headquartered in Illinois and founded in 1993 by Carol Spizzirri shortly after her 18 year old daughter Christina, died as a result of first-responders not able to render basic life supporting first aid because of lack of training. 

After discovering that first responders, including firefighters, police officers, 9-1-1 dispatchers, school teachers were not required “in Illinois” to be trained in such basic skills; Spizzirri became an instrumental force behind the passage of an Illinois state mandate requiring all police and firefighters be trained in LSFA skills prior to graduating from his/her academies.  This passage then prompted Spizzirri to focus on developing the most effective and efficient age appropriate LSFA courses, to be instructed only by emergency medical professionals in attempts to equip all citizens, especially schoolchildren with basic skills needed to help sustain life before medical professionals arrive.

With its motto “Trained hands save lives,” SALF has become a leader in promoting emergency medical service (EMS) as a career choice while providing Life Supporting First Aid training to well over 1 million schoolchildren (K-12) nationwide.