For many years, Placer Land Trust has ensured our staff and volunteers are certified in first aid and CPR. And now, we have the ability to train and certify our team as a Health & Safety Institute training center!
Every year we provide training for Basic First Aid & CPR certification, tailored to be relevant and responsive to the activities that we undertake on the preserves. This fall, longtime EMT Instructor Jason Price, with whom we have worked for several years to train our participants, led a “Train the Trainers” program for four Placer Land Trust volunteers to become certified instructors for PLT. Further, Jason helped staff set up PLT as an independent, nationally-recognized Health & Safety Institute training center.
PLT volunteers Bryan Wright, Andy Polik, Cathy Scott, and Glady Rutherford were selected for their strong First Aid experience, reliability, and interpersonal skills, and have already proven invaluable by providing Adult First Aid/CPR certification courses for more than 20 of our volunteers this past month!
Who are these amazing instructors? Former police officer/firefighter Andy Polik has embraced his new role as an opportunity to help Placer Land Trust in a new way. He applies his lifetime of experience to present training in a way that is practical, relevant to our situation, and easy to remember, showing how these skills are applicable every day as well as when volunteering.
Cathy Scott, with a deep background in wilderness first aid training, spends a lot of her time outside being active in higher-risk activities such as bike and horseback riding, as well as trail work. She believes that PLT staff have so many responsibilities that any help she—as a volunteer—can contribute, better allows PLT to meet its mission.
Bryan Wright has over 30 years of experience with emergency response, having been trained as an EMT, BLS instructor, and Wilderness First Responder. Teaching is one of his favorite things to do, and he told us that he feels “it is important to have more people available and capable if the situation arises.”
Glady Rutherford trained teachers as an RN for a school district in Southern California and now works with elderly and disabled veterans as a case manager, care coordinator, advocate, health educator, and cheerleader. In her “spare time” she is an active member of the Placer County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team, is trained in Wilderness First Aid, navigation, communications, and rescue operations. She became a PLT First Aid/CPR instructor so that she can “share knowledge and experience with our wonderful PLT staff and volunteers.”
Placer Land Trust is truly in very capable and skilled hands for furthering our preparation in First Aid and emergency response. In the future we may be able to offer training to other organizations, but for now we are thrilled to have the ability to offer certification and skill refresher opportunities to all interested PLT staff and volunteers on a regular, timely, and creative basis.
