OCEAN CITY — The Ocean City Beach Patrol is conducting outreach this summer to preach safety at the shore and to teach CPR.
Members were on the boardwalk in front of the Music Pier on June 16 handing out coloring books with beach safety lessons and conducting mini-CPR sessions. They’ll be repeating this in the community on Tuesdays throughout the summer.
According to EMT Anthony Fiore, whether it’s setting up a table on the boardwalk or going out on the beach, OCBP members will be talking to adults and children about heat safety and water safety and educating them by providing hands-on CPR and AED instruction.
The third Tuesday of every month, the OCBP holds a formal CPR class for the public that ends with the class members getting HSI BLS certification. The last one June 16 was at the Senior Center in the Ocean City Community Center. The next CPR class is 4:30 to 8 p.m. July 21 at the Ocean City Senior Center. Cost is $25. Look for the ad in this edition for the QR code to sign up.
However, they’re also providing a short, quick-to-learn version. Beach patrol members can teach adults and children right on the boardwalk with a hands-on tutorial using CPR dummies that lasts two to five minutes.
When the Boyd family from Tampa, Fla., stopped by the OCBP tents, Fiore, a college student who went to Wilson High School in Reading, Pa., asked their children, Stella, 9, and Apollo, almost 7, if they wanted to give it a try.
Fiore got down on his knees and demonstrated how to do chest compressions. Stella and Apollo followed as parents Steven and Kathy Boyd watched.
By taking two to five minutes to learn some of the lifesaving techniques such as CPR or heat safety, “you could save a life down the line and help us on the beach patrol or your first responders,” Fiore said.
“The survival rate goes down 10 percent each minute if you don’t do CPR. If you witness cardiac arrest and you’re on the chest doing CPR — no mouth-to-mouth, just compressions — you’re increasing that person’s chance of living,” he explained.
“By helping us out, starting compressions right away, you may save a life. By educating people here, we may save a life here in Ocean City or somewhere in the region.”
The CPR sessions were Fiore’s idea. He now is a student at the University of Delaware, studying public policy and political science with minors in emergency management and public health.
Fiore reached out to OCBP Chief Erich Becker with the idea “and he just took it and ran with it because taking two to five minutes to learn these skills could help us, could really save a life,” Fiore said.
A useful OCBP
coloring book
Becker also came up with a coloring book.
“I think it’s a great idea,” OCBP Deputy Chief Tony Mehalic said last week as he handed out the coloring books to children as they passed by the Music Pier and were curious about the beach patrol tents.
“When a lot of people first come down here, they don’t know what the green flags mean, what the red flags mean or about ocean currents,” Mehalic said. (The flags indicate where it is safe to swim and where it’s not.)
“One of the things our chief put together is this beach patrol coloring book for kids. As kids go through and color stuff, it’s very easy reading that the parents can review with them about beach safety,” he said. “These are things they typically don’t know when they come to the beach.”
The OCBP coloring book, done in collaboration with the OCBP Alumni and Ocean City Sentinel, with support from local businesses, has pages for kids to color with different messages. The topics include to always swim with a friend; go feet first, no diving; always swim inside the green flags; seek shelter when there’s lightning; go to a lifeguard if lost; apply sunscreen; rip current safety; wear shoes on the boardwalk to prevent splinters; and more.
The coloring books will be available at the different beach patrol headquarters and OCBP members will be handing them out on Tuesdays. They also can be found at some local businesses.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
