By Diana Cuevas, Securitas USA

The Emergency Preparedness hosted its second annual CPR/AED + First Aid certification course FREE of charge for all BOMA San Diego Members.  Securitas USA and Allied Universal came together to sponsor this event by providing instruction by Michael C. Jarrous, Securitas Security Services USA and Nolin Flowers, Allied Universal. Although these two trainers were brought on by two different companies and had never taught a class together, they had great chemistry and did an effective job of tag-teaming to train the attendees.  

Our members were treated with free breakfast sponsored by EP Committee member Frank A. Belio Jr. from the I.U.E.C. Local #18 (The International Union Of Elevator Constructors Local 18). Lunch was sponsored by EP Committee members Kent Edwards from Mitsubishi Electric and Carl from HKA Consulting.  

The class started at 8am on Friday, June 8th with immediate hands-on practice for all attendees! I think this woke everyone up and immediately had all members engaged.  Many of our attendees learned about AEDs and were provided information on how to maintain and manage these units in buildings. AED units require monitoring and maintenance and are easy to use but require practice.  

The First Aid certification started after lunch. We highly recommend that our members take advantage of this free training. First responders can take a long time to help in an emergency.  A major component of emergency planning is taking safety and training into OUR own hands.