"First Aid"

Ariel, my grand daughter, was 11 last September and in Grade 6. Her teacher assigned all students in her class to present a 3 or 4 minute talk on a topic of their choice (subject to teacher approval). This is her talk on First Aid which I share with you.


"A body of another person falls; what do you do? A young boy drowned in a pool; nobody knew what to do. Would you? A girl fell off the monkey bars and hurt herself badly. Could you do anything?

Good Morning teachers and fellow students. My name is Ariel Baird-Kerr and I am giving a speech on the requirements of learning and understanding First Aid.

I will start with informing you of what to do first when a situation occurs. First, stay calm. A panic is the worst thing to happen when a situation arises. More people may get hurt if a panic causes chaos. Secondly, clear your mind so that you can think clearly. In order for a better outcome to happen, you need to think properly, clearly and calmly to come to a solution that would work best in the situation. Finally, you must decide if whether or not more advanced help is required. Ask an adult or someone you can trust who knows more than you do, about first aid for advice.

Next, I will explain and tell you about how first aid benefits other people. Think about a time someone you know hurt themselves; did someone help them? Think about what would happen to them if nobody was there to help them. An infection may arise; illness may develop; their health could be further endangered...or worse! Knowing first aid is important because if nobody else knows how to help the hurt person...you do. Any person can get hurt and most of them could use proper first aid. “Most” people is a “lot” of people.

I tell you now, about how knowing first aid can help even doctors. Doctors have patients and when those patients are organized, it is commonsense to arrange those patients by how much help they need. For example, helping a person who just had a heart attack comes before giving someone three stitches for a small cut on the hand. You can help doctors by being able to help someone before that situation gets worse. By doing this, the potential of that person requiring doctor-level care is decreased; and doctors have more time to tend to people who need more immediate care.

Finally, I will tell you a few facts about First Aid, as to who believes it should be taught and learned. First, all of Saint John Ambulance believe EVERYONE should learn basic first aid. Secondly , in a survey of whether or not first aid should be learned, a ratio of 21 people to 1 person said, 'Yes'. First Aid holds so much importance that an entire agency acknowledges it as a required amount of information.

In conclusion, based on the facts and situations I have given you, people should be taught First Aid to better support human society."

Presenting this to her class, she won top marks. Shortly thereafter, the same speech was combined with the Grade 5 students, also in the Junior Division, and again awarded high marks. She was invited to present First Aid to winners of these grades with 9 other schools in the vicinity. Ariel was dressed beautifully in a yellow tiered ruffled dress, her long black hair wonderfully styled and with a smile to the audience...a winning combination for her well delivered talk. To honour my grand daughter for this achievement, I gave her a long stem yellow lily with 5 buds ready to burst open...a card pinned to it "Best Wishes and Continued Success".

Merle Baird-Kerr
April 3, 2011