Repulse Bay (Mar 31/04) - A group of senior students at Tusarvik school in Repulse Bay are now able to lend a helping hand in an emergency situation.

Students from Grade 10, 11 and 12 recently passed an emergency first-aid program instructed by Keewatin Air employee Deb Penner.

Keewatin Air sponsored the course as a community service to the school.

The two-day course encompassed the basics of emergency first aid.

Penner, a paramedic, co-ordinated a medical response service in Manitoba and is a certified instructor in first aid and CPR.

Most recently, she has been doing medevac work with Keewatin Air.

"The students responded to the course very well, so it turned out to be a great couple of days," says Penner.

"I also spent an evening doing a bit of first aid with the Repulse cadets."

Penner says the Tusarvik students responded well to the hands-on segments of the course.

She says students tend to enjoy the practical exercises more than sitting in a classroom and being lectured.

"We started with classroom instruction and then switched back and forth between that and the hands-on activities.

"By the end of the course, the students weren't shy about participating at all."

All the students who took the course received their first-aid cards and certificates.

Penner says she was impressed with how quickly the kids picked up the practical exercises.

She says by the end of the course, the students had a good understanding of what to do in an emergency.

"They all have the basic skills of first aid and that's what needs to come first. Anything else is gravy."

"The community welcomed me with open arms and I enjoyed my time there immensely.

"At the end of the course, the students presented me with some char and I was pretty ecstatic about that."