CARTHAGE, ILL. -- The Hancock County Red Cross is making its way into high school health classes.
It received more than seventy five hundred dollars through a grant to start a new program.
Its goal is to certify every student in Hancock county in CPR and first aid.
In this KHQA Safe Family Report we tak you inside one of the classes designed to save a life.
Freshmen in this health class have just finished their first aid and CPR training class...
"You can save someone if they're choking or anything," said freshman Fisher Boyle.
They're the first class at Illini West to take the class but in four years, every student will be certified.
"The more we can educate our kids, the better opportunity people in our community, or where ever they may be. You know, you come upon an emergency that anybody would be able to respond to. The biggest thing with this, we talked about over the next four years we can get all of our kids certified with CPR and first aid. That greatly increases any body's chance for survival," said PE teacher Zach Keene.
"It's going to be something you are going to use, not if. It's something you will use. It's just a matter of when because at their age they will see somebody choking or will see someone collapse of a heart attack," said Hancock County EMS Coordinator Perry Cameron.
Students took the class for two weeks, but they weren't always so comfortable with the CPR dummies.
"The kids the first couple days were kind of shy about interacting and getting hands on and things like that, but here by the last day, they were great about getting hands on and getting right in there and getting after it and answering questions and being responsive to it," said Keene.
In order to stay certified, the kids will be re-certified every year in their PE classes.
The organization chose to teach the class in health because every freshman has to take it before graduating.
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