SAFETY HARBOR, Fla. — It’s the kind of training you want to have but hope never to need—CPR. Now, businesses in Safety Harbor are coming together to help their employees learn the life-saving skill in case of an emergency.
“It seems like you can’t go a week or two weeks nowadays without hearing about somebody having some kind of a medical emergency, cardiac arrest of some kind in a public setting,” said Chris Wicks, the owner of Daydreamers Café and Grill. “With all the foot traffic that Safety Harbor is blessed to have, it would be a smart idea to see if we can have at least one, if not more than one, CPR-certified employee, team member, owner, if you would, in every business and hospitality business in Safety Harbor."
It’s something that’s personal for people in the community, too.
"Lou Kinney, who owned the Whistle Stop Grill and Bar here in town, one of my best friends, we lost him tragically on Christmas Eve to cardiac arrest,” said Scott Long, the owner of Quoz Creative. “I'm very happy that that conversation led Chris to put this all together, and I was the first one to sign up for the class."
The downtown business community is partnering with the Safety Harbor Fire Department to provide CPR certification to employees of each business.
Mayor Joe Ayoub pointed out that whether it’s a hurricane or anything else, this community steps up.
“It's no surprise that the business community is coming together to look for ways to help protect the community's health in case there's a situation that arises,” said Ayoub.
Fire Chief Josh Stefancic said the goal is to have an employee from each restaurant CPR certified so if a customer or another employee has an emergency, someone can help buy that person time.
"In this perfect world, we'd have somebody that if you called 911, we would instantaneously be there, but we just know that's not possible. That's not reality,” said Stefancic. “So if we have people who are able to start giving help and aid to somebody who trips or falls or in the event that they stop breathing or their heart stops, somebody can start helping them right away."
Stefancic said they’re doing two classes that are coming up this month.
