BETHEL — Nineteen fifth-graders at SAD 44’s Crescent Park School now have lifesaving skills, thanks to the Bethel Ambulance Service.

Kathy Conrad’s fifth-grade class has been working toward their American Heart Association certification in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, David Hanscom, an AHA instructor and Bethel Ambulance Service volunteer, said Sunday.

He said it’s the same AHA course with the same standards that an adult would take for certification in CPR, automated external defibrillators and first aid.

“It is very impressive that these 19 fifth-graders were able to complete this training,” Hanscom said.

It’s the first time of which he’s aware that a fifth-grade class at the kindergarten-through-fifth-grade school had received their AHA certification in all of these areas, he said.

“I feel that they have earned some recognition for this great accomplishment,” he said. “It is important not only for them, but for the community.

“The really nice thing is that there are AEDs at the school and Telstar Middle/High School,” he said.

Having these students trained increases the number of people in those two buildings who know how to use this important equipment, Hanscom said.

“Now if someone goes into cardiac arrest at one of our local schools, there will be more people who know what to do, and who will hopefully be able to help save a life, if needed,” he said.

The students are: Alicia Barton, Lilo Bean, Nicole Berry, Crystal Chapman, Selina Creelman, Stephanie Geyer, Brooklin Gordon, Kurtis Grover, Emily Hanscom, Abby Harrington, Blake Katlin, Matthew Lavoie, Tristen Lilly, Griffin Lehman, Mia Shifrin, Kaitlee Turnick, Tom Watson, Logan Whitney and Sarahanne Wright.

Hanscom said the idea to teach youngsters how to save lives began eight years ago when Bethel Ambulance Service introduced CPS kindergarten students to their local ambulance service.

He said the goals of that session were to get them acclimated to ambulance staff and equipment used on an ambulance should the students or their family members need transport.

That presentation has been repeated since with additional grade levels.

Last year, while doing a presentation for Conrad’s class, she asked if ambulance service staff could train her students in basic first aid.

Hanscom and Conrad developed a plan to try to achieve certification in first aid and CPR with the students. To become an AHA instructor, Hanscom worked with and took training from the Tri-County Training Center in Lewiston.

In the process, he taught a class for Bethel Town Office staff since they have an AED at the office and needed the training, he said.

Once that was done, he began meeting with Conrad’s fifth-grade class. They have been trained in glove removal, finding the problem, bleeding control and bandaging, splinting, using an Ephinephrine auto-injector or EpiPen, how to help someone who is choking, and how to perform CPR on adults, children and infants, Hanscom said.

The students also learned how to use an AED.

“They have done an amazing job in learning and performing each of these skills,” he said.

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