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Cypress Creek EMS is significantly
expanding its community education activities and has added staff and
programs to support the new outreach efforts. Kendra Windisch (right)
joins the team as Community Relations Coordinator and Vicki Whitt (left)
is the Service’s new CPR and First Aid Coordinator.
According to CCEMS Executive Director, Brad England,
“As we celebrate our 25th year of serving our
Northwest community, we felt it was entirely appropriate to reach out to
our neighbors and local businesses to offer life-saving programs and
educational opportunities. Compared to where we started out in 1975, there
are so many techniques available to us today that can make a life-or-death
difference in serious trauma injuries and previously fatal cardiac events
or strokes. Some of this technology,” England explained, “such as CPR,
First Aid and defibrillator skills, for example, can be learned by just
about everyone. That’s why we are making this instruction available
throughout our service area a priority in the years ahead. We have the
skills and we want to share them.”
Windisch received her B.S. degree from Sam Houston
State University with a double major in Health Education and Psychology,
and went on to earn a Masters of Arts in Health Education from that same
institution. Before joining CCEMS, she was Program Director for Prevent
Blindness Texas and previously served as Student Services Coordinator for
ITT Technical Institute. Kendra and husband, Scott (Deputy Chief at
Ponderosa Volunteer Fire Department), are the proud parents of a two year
old son.
Windisch points out that, “It is so important for
people to understand that prevention measures and life-saving skills
training can go a long way toward keeping ourselves and the ones we love
safe and healthy. Consider the difference CPR training can make, for
example. Just a decade ago, few people knew how to perform this maneuver
and would often have to stand by helplessly while someone suffered a heart
attack or stopped breathing.
Today, thanks to a lot of national publicity and
television medical dramas, most people know about the technique and may
even have seen it performed. Last year alone, there were 440,075 people in
Texas who were trained in this valuable skill. We are offering
opportunities for training to local businesses and public institutions, to
retail outlets, to educators and bankers -- to anyone who wants to learn,
in fact. If the opportunity ever came up for you to save a life,
wouldn’t you want to be prepared to respond effectively?”
Vicki Whitt is the new CCEMS CPR and First Aid
Coordinator. She served in a similar position for Northwest EMS until
joining Cypress Creek, and is certified as an Emergency Medical
Dispatcher, Emergency Medical Technician-Basic, Basic Life Support
Instructor through the American Heart Association, and as a Community CPR
and First Aid Instructor through the American Red Cross. Vicki is a single
mom with a 4 year old son.
“I am delighted to be a part of such an aggressive
program to educate people about how to save lives,” she said
enthusiastically. “We all know that accidents do happen – even
to those we love and care about – and outcomes are certainly better if
we are prepared to deal with emergency situations by providing the
appropriate care in a timely manner.”
“We are especially excited about our new CPR program
for businesses,” said Windisch. “It is designed not only to make it
easier for local companies to provide critical CPR and First Aid training
for their employees, but also to help the participating companies and
retailers let their customers know that they are prepared to help out in
case of an emergency at their facility. Our C.P.R. – Caring
People Responding – program includes several different
levels of participation with the option for point-of-sale information
materials (signs and banners, counter signs, camera ready art for use in
advertising programs) as well as incentive/ recognition items such as
buttons, koozies, mugs, T-shirts, certificates, and pins for participating
employees.”
Epsilon Engineering's staff members learn CPR
Windisch said that promotional packets are available to
encourage local businesses to sign up. Participating companies will be
listed on the CCEMS web site (www.ccems.com)
as having provided the training opportunity for employees.
“This is truly a win/win situation,” the program
coordinator pointed out. “Here is a chance to provide training in
life-saving techniques for employers at a very nominal cost. Having people
 who
know CPR and First Aid not only makes your place of business safer for
employees, but for customers, as well. I think that is a marketable
commodity of special importance to customers who may be heart attack
survivors and provides a little extra sense of security for shoppers.”
The life-blood of an organization like CCEMS is its
volunteers. Most people think only of the trained medical volunteers who,
day after day, respond to 9-1-1 calls throughout the service area for
emergency assistance, and are not aware that there are other services that
can be met by volunteers, as well.
“We always have a need for non-medical drivers, for
example,” Kendra said. “There may not be the typical office-type
volunteer assignments at CCEMS, but with our expanding community outreach
efforts, we definitely need to recruit some new non-medical volunteers to
help make this program a reality. That’s why we have introduced our new
Auxiliary T.E.A.M. – an acronym that stands for Training, Education,
Awareness and Motivation.”
“The mission of the T.E.A.M. is to attract
medical and non-medical members who are dedicated to prevention-based
training, education and awareness and who are motivated to help provide
health and safety related programs for our neighbors in the community we
serve. It is from this group that we hope to draw potential paramedics for
coming decades and to bolster our medical volunteer ranks,"
Kendra explained.
"This program also offers a meaningful volunteer
experience for others in our service area who are looking for a rewarding
and fulfilling personal service commitment. We see the potential, for
example, in helping retired teachers to recycle their career skills
by training them as CPR and First Aid instructors. There are also teens
who are searching for something meaningful to do that will expose them to
a future career option. Again, the T.E.A.M.
program can help meet the service needs of people in a wide range of age
groups and provide much needed assistance in enabling us to expand CCEMS
programs.”
Kendra and Vicki have the
contagious enthusiasm, creativity and management skills to make these
outreach programs work and they are actively looking for “recruits.”
Anyone who is interested in learning more about volunteer opportunities or
who would like to schedule a training program for their company or
organization, please call 281-440-9650 and ask for the Community Relations
department.
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