SALISBURY — Performing CPR to the rhythm of Bee Gees signature song “Stayin’ Alive,” six local students kicked off a weeklong course Monday as they learn the ins and outs of public safety from the town’s first responders.
“We brought this idea up to share our passion for this job and helping the community and basically extending that to these teenagers if they’re interested in this public safety profession and actually getting them hands on experience,” Salisbury firefighter C.J. Reusch said.
The inaugural Public Safety Summer Academy is being run as a collaborative effort between the Salisbury Fire Department, Salisbury Police Department, Salisbury Beach lifeguards and Cataldo Ambulance. The course ends Thursday.
Day One saw students gather at the Hilton Center to learn first aid and CPR from Reusch and fire Capt. Andrew Murphy.
“The kids met with our EMS instructor from Cataldo Ambulance, and we went over some more basic first aid, bleeding control and anaphylactic shock with EpiPens,” Reusch said.
Students performed CPR on mannequins, with the mannequins glowing with two green dots when they found the proper rhythm and depth for compressions. As recommended to Michael Scott and fellow Dunder Mifflin employees in Season 5 of the hit television series “The Office,” compressions were performed to the tune of “Stayin’ Alive.”
Unlike Dwight Schrute, students found plenty of success with this method, all quickly getting the two green dots.
While it was recommended to perform the compressions with the same beats per minute as the classic disco song, Murphy and Reusch did offer alternatives.
“Another song you can use is the ‘Baby Shark song,’” Reusch said, referring to the viral internet song that has garnered billions of views on YouTube.
Ava Latham, a 17-year-old from Rowley entering her senior year at New England Academy, shared her reasoning for signing up for the new public safety course.
“I want to be a firefighter, and I’m doing multiple camps this summer because I’m really interested in the service,” she said.
Latham said she was enjoying the first day of the program learning about EMTs and CPR.
“It’s interesting learning about all the different ways you can save lives and like how to help the community and stuff,” Latham said.
One of her favorite parts of the day was doing the hands-on CPR demonstrations using mannequins.
“It was much easier, especially with my ADHD, I can be more hands-on and it helps make it easier,” Latham said.
She said she has already learned a lot about her future dream career path.
“I think you have to do whatever it takes to save a life, even if that means risking your own,” Latham said.
The day ended with the students being able to go out to Lion’s Park behind the Hilton Center to watch the Massachusetts State Police Air Wing perform a flyby.
Fire Chief Scott Carrigan praised the efforts that went into organizing the course.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the personnel in my department that work to put this together, and also the partner agencies that have become involved and other town administrators that have lended their support,” Carrigan said.
He said that he knows firsthand how important it is to get youths in the community exposed to what first responders do.
“We can all definitely see how it affected many of our members when they were young,” Carrigan said.
Carrigan was expected to get more involved Tuesday when the course moved to the fire station for firefighter training.
On Wednesday, students will visit the police station to learn about police tactics. The course will wrap up Thursday at the Salisbury Beach State Reservation as students learn water rescue techniques from lifeguards before concluding with a barbecue.
Matt Petry covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: mpetry@northofboston.com.