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B-CC Rescue Squad members honored for excellent training

Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2006

The Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad is known for being one of the nation’s most advanced and best-trained squads. This summer, they are upholding that reputation as 10 members of the squad took top honors in graduation ceremonies at the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Training Academy.

Nine rescue squad volunteers and one member of the squad’s day staff were recognized for completing training programs to become paramedics, cardiac rescue technicians, emergency medical technicians or firefighters.

Rescue squad volunteer Harriet Winner got the prestigious Willa K. Little Award for being the top academic student in her Cardiac Rescue Technician class. CRT certification requires 600 hours of classroom time and additional clinical time in a hospital setting. CRTs are trained to treat life-threatening conditions and administer specialized drugs to patients experiencing health emergencies.

Day staff member Katherine Elkins completed the grueling 600-hour paramedic (EMT-P) class, which leads to the highest level of medical training for pre-hospital care providers at the rescue squad. The EMT-P program includes additional skills over and above the skills learned in the CRT program.

Squad volunteers were the top academic students in two Emergency Medical Technician-Basic classes. Samer Razick and Susan Singley carried on the squad tradition of academic excellence by receiving the Richard B. Thompson Award for top academic performance in their respective EMT-B classes. EMT-B is the first level of formalized medical training required for all rescue squad volunteers. The training program consists of more than 120 hours of classroom time, coupled with additional in-hospital clinical requirements and hours spent riding rescue squad ambulances on actual emergency calls. EMT-Bs perform a variety of skills, including patient assessment, basic life support and use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

Volunteers Erin Brolly, Morgan Earnest, Elizabeth Hernandez, Wilder Leavitt and Jarrod Lynn also completed the EMT-B training program.

Rescue Squad volunteer Andrew Zuraw completed Montgomery County’s rigorous Essentials of Firefighting Class. The 120-hour firefighter’s course consists of extensive classroom instruction as well as physically demanding practical training, including live firefighting exercises. Training includes how to extinguish fires and skills needed to address a variety of emergency situations involving hazardous materials, electrical equipment, fire alarm and sprinkler systems, and many others.

All Rescue Squad volunteers and staff receive professional training and meet or exceed state standards before responding to emergency calls.

Paola Beer, the Bethesda Fire Department’s first extern, has also been training with the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad, as well as the Bethesda Fire Department and Montgomery County Fire and Rescue.

Beer is a student from York Technical College in York, Pa. The externship provides training and experience to students interested in careers in fire and emergency medical services.

Chevy Chase math teacher researches dolphins

Chevy Chase resident Judith Knight, a middle school math teacher at Georgetown Day School, joined an Earthwatch Institute dolphin research team in Sarasota, Fla., from June 18 to July 1.

Knight, along with other team members joined the Wild Dolphin Societies Project in Sarasota Bay.

The team spent more than six hours every day on the water. They helped monitor dolphins by sighting them, noting their location, their activities, their companions and the environmental conditions.

The researchers became familiar with the 160 dolphins that reside in the Sarasota Bay area, and were able to recognize individual dolphins by the nicks and notches on their dorsal fins.

As a math teacher, Knight is particularly eager to use the data from her trip as part of the seventh-grade statistics and data collection unit.

Earthwatch Institute provides hundreds of opportunities for volunteers to get involved in conservation research. Visit www.earthwatch.org or call 800-776-0188 for more information.

Get a haircut, give a haircut

If your kids need a trim before going back to school, take them to a Hair Cuttery Salon before Aug. 15 and the salon chain will donate a free haircut to help a local child in need.

Through Aug. 15, for every child’s haircut purchased at a Hair Cuttery salon in the county, the chain will give a certificate for a free haircut to be distributed through the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services and Montgomery County Public Schools.

This is the company’s eighth ‘‘Share a Haircut” campaign. Since 1999, Hair Cuttery has donated more than 42,000 free haircuts to children in the Washington, D.C. area.

On campus

Bethesda resident James Riviere, a graduate of Saint Andrews Episcopal School, received a bachelor’s degree from The College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, during commencement exercises on May 15. He majored in philosophy.

While at Wooster, Riviere was the founder and president of the Multi-Cultural Film Society and was inducted into Phi Sigma Tau, the philosophy honor society.

This column is for you. Share your good news! Feel free to send press releases and news tips. Contact Stephanie Siegel via e-mail at ssiegel@gazette.net, phone at 301-280-3006, fax at 301-670-7183, or snail mail at 1200 Quince Orchard Blvd., Gaithersburg, MD 20878.