West Fargo and Essentia expands Save-A-life Boot Camp to include seventh graders

HORACE, N.D. (KVRR) — Students at Heritage Middle School in Horace had the chance today to learn some skills that could help them save someone’s life.

The students were taught how to recognize symptoms of strokes and heart attacks by medical professionals with Essentia Health.

They also learned the basics of CPR and how to operate an Automated External defibrillator or AED.

Essentia has been holding the boot camp for the past four years with fifth graders in the West Fargo School District, but this is the first year they are teaching students in seventh grade.

“We had new PE standards that were implemented this year, and part of the PE standards was teaching some of these lifesaving skills,” said Nicole Seyfried, a curriculum coordinator for Heritage Middle School. “And so I reached out to say,’Hey. How about we expand it to seventh grade, since we already do it in fifth grade?’ And then in ninth grade, we actually have – our PE teachers are certified CPR instructors, so we certify our ninth graders already in CPR, so this was a nice bridge between the two classes.”

A spokesperson with Essential Health tell us they plan on holding the boot camp for seventh graders annually, just as they do for the fifth graders.