Fleming-Mason
Energy
Teaching
Safety Locally
Electric cooperative employees offer CPR training to people in their
own community
September 1996
People may be a
little safer in northeast Kentucky as a result of First Aid and CPR
training conducted during the past several years by three employees
of Fleming-Mason Rural Electric Cooperative, headquartered in
Flemingsburg.
In 1991, Mary
Hopper, executive secretary, Steve Harn, first class lineman and
meter reading technician, and Bill Money, first class lineman, took
an American Red Cross “train the trainer” course at the offices
of the Kentucky Association of Electric Cooperatives, the
Louisville-based organization that represents the 29 electric co-ops
providing electricity for some 1 million people around Kentucky. (It’s
also the association that publishes this magazine.)
Since they took
the course in 1991, Mary, Steve, and Bill have trained some
825 people in the eight-county area served by Fleming-Mason Co-op,
which distributes electricity to 18,000 customers. They have
conducted the day-long training course for employees of the city of
Flemingsburg, the area water district, area businesses, and, of
course, all the employees of Fleming-Mason Electric Co-op.
Louie Flanery,
Director of Member Services for Fleming-Mason, calls this effort “another
service we provide to try to help the community.”
He says the co-op
realized years ago this kind of training was needed, and saw it as
something Fleming-Mason could provide, rather than bringing someone
in from another community. The co-op has been able to offer the
training after hours and in other ways flexible enough to make it
convenient.
“People say it’s
well worthwhile,” Louie says. “They are glad somebody is able to
provide this locally.”
Mary says people’s
response to taking the courses is consistently positive and
appreciative, and she gets a lot of people saying “thank you”
for someone taking the time to carefully explain, demonstrate, and
then have the students practice the lifesaving techniques on a
lifelike mannequin.
“We’ve had a
lot more people interested than we expected,” says Mary. “We
haven’t had any classes where people felt like they didn’t need
this training.”-Paul Wesslund |
