‘The Man’ has had quite a busy year! This submission comes from students of a Wilderness First Responder course at YMCA Camp Greenville. Fred W. Symmes Chapel, an open chapel constructed in 1941, is also called “The Pretty Place” because of it’s spectacular views.
Congratulations to the students that received their WFR certification on December 16, 2009!
Ted H., who is a successful graduate of a Wilderness First Responder course, submitted the two pictures below. Please click on the images to view them larger.
One picture is in Bayou Manchac and the other is in Alligator Bayou, which goes from Spanish Lake and feeds into Bayou Manchac.
Reading “Goodnight Gorilla” in Bremen, ME. – Eric Duffy, Lead Instructor
(Nothing exotic, but lots of fun!)
Submitted by Kelley Duffy EMT/WFR
Don’t forget! At the end of the year, we will select the 3 best submissions. The winners will receive $100 cash prize. Send in a picture of yourself wearing your WMA course t-shirt to "> in order to be eligible for the prizes.
This picture was taken by Michael’s 10 year old son while on vacation this summer at Grand Teton and Yellowstone.
Michael B.
Don’t forget! At the end of the year, we will select the 3 best submissions. The winners will receive $100 cash prize. Send in a picture of yourself wearing your WMA course t-shirt to "> in order to be eligible for the prizes.
Here’s the Man attending an all Jeep off road event on Drummond Island, Michigan, in June 2009.
Submitted by:
Micah Bell
NREMT-B, WEMT
National Park Service-Indiana Dunes N.L.
Don’t forget! At the end of the year, we will select the 3 best submissions. The winners will receive $100 cash prize. Send in a picture of yourself wearing your WMA course t-shirt to "> in order to be eligible for the prizes.
Submitted by WMA instructor, Alice Henshaw:
This is “Buddy” enjoying the view from one of the overlooks along the AT as it wends its way between NY and NJ…. Buddy was found by a colleague of mine abandoned and tied to a post near one of our worksites in the Bronx at the end of July. I ended up with him–all 45 ringworm infested pounds of him… Since then, he’s (obviously) much healthier, and is so much fun to have around that I couldn’t send him away.
When he is a year old (in Feb.) he will be testing for Canine good Citizen and Therapy dog certifications. From there, he’ll try his paw at some SAR and/or agility work. In the meantime, he’s doing a bit of advertising for WMA!
Don’t forget! At the end of the year, we will select the 3 best submissions. The winners will receive $100 cash prize. Send in a picture of yourself wearing your WMA course t-shirt to in order to be eligible for the prizes.
“I am pretty sure this is the first posting for the “Man” in a tree. I was in a 150 foot tall, 100+ year old Douglas-fir near Fort Lewis, WA.”
-Zebediah, WFR and Arborist from Washington.
Don’t forget! At the end of the year, we will select the 3 best submissions. The winners will receive $100 cash prize. Send in a picture of yourself wearing your WMA course t-shirt to "> in order to be eligible for the prizes.
Click on the images for a larger view.
“During a orthopedic surgery medical mission in Nicaragua, this child from one of the villages was found to have a foot injury, later to be diagnosed with a 2nd – 4th metatarsal fracture.
The boy was being carried back to his house at time of injury – later to be casted.”
Pictures submitted by WMA instructor, Carl Blondell.
Don’t forget! At the end of the year, we will select the 3 best submissions. The winners will receive $100 cash prize. Send in a picture of yourself wearing your WMA course t-shirt to in order to be eligible for the prizes.
There is a curious post on ems1.com’s web page today. It relates a story about a record setting effort by a group of 8th graders in Texas.
No it was not a pie eating contest or sporting event. Apparently they were certified by the Guinness folks for holding the world’s largest CPR class – 4626 students.
“As expected with thousands of junior high students, there was plenty of goofing around during the lesson. Giggling was common when they first gave their inflatable mannequins mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and more than a few decided to head butt or slap their Mini Anne CPR dummies. But most appeared to take the lesson seriously.
Cluck (the mayor who helped organize the CPaRlington program)walked several laps around the field during the lesson, and he said most participants understood the techniques and could resuscitate someone if needed. Each student is now required to take the dummies home and teach four other people.”
Although not specifically mentioned, 30 minutes and inflatable CPR dummies sound a lot like the American Heart Association’s (AHA) CPR Anytime. Regardless of whose curriculum, I am assuming that this was not a certifying course.
The CPR Anytimeis a real departure from where the AHA was even 5 years ago. There was a time when everyone taking one of their courses was hovered over by a hypervigilant instructor making sure that each student’s compressions and ventilations were within an upper and lower limit. Skill testing success or failure was determined by lines on a piece of graph paper spit out from the side of the testing dummy. Everyone knew that you had to modify your technique for the testing mannequin used, in order to pass.
Most instructors led their students to believe that if their technique varied in anyway from the norm, those efforts would hasten a patient’s demise. Everyone assumed that the AHA knew what it was doing and as a result no one else (other than the American Red Cross and a few others) could be trusted to teach CPR. Now these courses are more user friendly and accessible, engineered to train the masses. These self-directed offerings are a convenient way for people to learn a skill that could enhance survivability following a cardiac arrest without having to take a course. No one knows whether or not this new approach will make a difference. Others of us have been allowed to use our own curricula and ideas to teach this once sacred procedure. It seems that AHA mantra has become, do something. Over the years, anecdotal stories suggest that an untrained person doing something is potentially beneficial and not harmful. Science shows us that early intervention does make a difference. I agree
Still, this rock concert-like event makes me cringe. Why not do it right? Is the time spent in school classrooms so valuable that they don’t have time for this or practical First Aid? The AHA hopes people taking self-directed courses will in turn teach someone else. Would these kids do a better job teaching their parents after a course like the one noted above or after a proper course, esepically one that utilized a variety of teaching methodolgies (e.g., fun) and was integrated in with what they are leaning in school?
This is not a criticism of these kids. This is what they know. Kudos to them not for the record but for the initiative and sense of civic concern. But with a little guidance and effort, think about how much more could be done.
These photos are from the beach and fruit stand near my current place of residence in Maputo, Mozambique. A few weeks ago I got to put my first aid skills to use on this very beach — tending to a deep cut on my own foot! Fortunately, I had everything I needed to clean the wound… including, somehow, the patience to pick out every last grain of sand.
-Rachel Mason
(WAFA Monteverde 2009)
Click on the pictures for a larger image.
Don’t forget! At the end of the year, we will select the 3 best submissions. The winners will receive $100 cash prize. Send in a picture of yourself wearing your WMA course t-shirt to in order to be eligible for the prizes.