On Friday, McHenry High School celebrated 167 students who completed the American Heart Association CPR/AED training, marking a return to pre-pandemic class size for the school’s emergency medical training.
Officials from Northwestern Medicine McHenry joined high school administrators and physical education instructors for the ceremony to honor the students who completed the weeklong training in March. Last year, due to limited in-person education opportunities because of COVID-19, a smaller group of 26 students was able to get the HeartSaver for K-12 Schools training, plus some additional training during summer school.
This year’s 167 is closer to a typical year, said Dr. John Beerbower, assistant division chair for McHenry High School District 156 physical education, health and driver’s education at Upper Campus. Usually, between 120 to 200 students get the training each year.
In the nine years McHenry High School has partnered with Northwestern Medicine to provide the training, 1,681 students have been trained to give CPR, handle choking emergencies and use an AED (automatic external defibrillator).
“I’m really happy with this year’s number,” Beerbower said. “Our community is safer because of all this training the kids have gotten.”
Beerbower said he’s heard from several former students that the training allowed them to respond well in emergencies.
Any student can sign up for the training that is administered by physical education Instructors Anna Centella, Theodora Davis, Colleen Eddy, Jake Guardalarbene, Dennis Hutchinson, Carrie Recard and Beerbower. Northwestern Medicine provides training to instructors.
“The hospital has been awesome to work with these nine years,” Beerbower said. “They’re excited that we do it.”
Students receive an electronic certification to show they’ve completed the rescue training for infants, children and adults. They also received a heart-shaped cookie on Friday.
Senior Nickolas Garantziotis, who plans to study to become a firefighter and emergency medical technician at McHenry County College, said he’s sure he’ll use the training in the future. And it was a great refresher to learning CPR in middle school.
“I thought it was a really good course,” Garantziotis said. “You should definitely keep touching up on it.”
