“Don’t be scared, be prepared,” is a phrase taught to students in the Rescue Kids class, a collaborative effort to help children in the Brooklyn and Oregon community gain important skills when dealing with a possible emergency situation. 

Retired Brooklyn Elementary School teacher Dale Schulz teaches the Saturday morning class, offered through the school district’s Oregon Community Education and Recreation Program, is for students in fourth and fifth grade, the typical age that children may be home alone or in the care of older siblings. 

The class will teach kids some of the following skills: checking a scene for safety, calling 911, keeping an injured or ill victim calm, being watchful for preventable accidents, identifying a choking person and knowing how to provide abdominal thrusts. Students will also pack a pillowcase kit with necessary emergency items in order to be better prepared in case of a natural weather emergency. 

Brooklyn EMS volunteers will share information regarding pets, how to handle younger siblings and the type of equipment that they would see if an ambulance should arrive. The class concludes with a brief tour of the Brooklyn Fire/EMS facility and ambulance. 

There are eight opportunities available to take the Saturday morning class, held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., from January through April at the Brooklyn Fire/EMS facility. The cost is $15 per student to cover expenses and materials provided to the students. Parents may still enroll their children for any of the remaining available classes by registering at oregonsd.org/community.