EMT's Outside the Box Thinking Earns Annual Award

A little outside the box thinking in a way for the Merrimack Fire Department to reach out to the community earned EMT Jeremy Penerian this year's EMT of the Year award from the Merrimack VFW.

Penerian who was nominated again by Capt. Brian Dubreuil for the work he has done above and beyond to create a community program designed to teach Merrimack residents a life-saving skill.

Dubreuil said Penerian has spearheaded a program to make Merrimack a "Heart Safe Community" – by creating a low-cost CPR course that will be taught by members of the Merrimack Fire Department trained as CPR instructors.

The four-hour courses will be open to the public, with the first one being taught today by Mark Bickford at 10 a.m. at the Merrimack Public Library. Bickford recently became a certified teacher. (He was also named firefighter of the year.)

"It's a touching way for him to reach out to the community," Dubreuil said."It shows how he thinks outside of just this department and I was really impressed."

The American Heart Association course covers Adult CPR and automated external defibrillators and costs $35, including course materials.

In addition to being a lower cost way for residents to learn CPR, it also filter money back into the community as a portion of the proceeds will be placed into the Professional Fire Fighters of Merrimack Local #2904 fundraising account, which then is donated back into the community.

This class will be limited to six students and Bickford said it was pretty close to full for this Friday.

Penerian's idea comes full circle, if you will, on all of the emergency personnel awarded by the VFW, as it was born out of an incident that two police officers were awarded for. A bicyclist last year was riding on Bedford Road when he had a heart attack. Motorists were passing along on the busy road and police were there very quickly.

Dubreuil said the officers, Paul Wells and Daniel Jacques performed CPR on the man until EMTs could arrive. It's a life-saving skill that you never know when it will come in handy.

Check back next week for more on Wells' and Jacques' story and learn more about this Heart Saver program here.