Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette Bay Ambulance Director Gary Wadaga instructs those in attendance at Camp 911 for Seniors how to conduct chest compressions. The camp was put on to educate senior citizens about first response and emergency situations as well as have them practice the skills they learned.

BARAGA — The Baraga County Triad hosted Camp 911 for Seniors at the Baraga Township Building last Wednesday to provide first response and emergency education to senior citizens. The Triad is a collaboration between first responders, senior citizens and senior service providers which works to perform crime prevention and education programs for the county’s seniors. The information and presentations seniors received at the event included fire extinguisher use, first aid and chest compressions, scam awareness, home safety and more.

The event saw its return after it was last implemented in the early 2000s. Bay Ambulance Director Gary Wadaga said seniors requested the event since the camp is a yearly event for the local children. Wadaga agreed it was important to have the event, especially with the dangers seniors can face.

“Slips, trips and falls are probably the biggest cause of injury,” Wadaga said. “So it’s important that they know how to dial 911, and and how to prevent the whole thing from happening to begin with. And then there’s things like fire extinguisher training. Who’s ever actually used a fire extinguisher? So it’s really good when you do something, you have a tendency to remember it better than just us standing up in front of the class talking.”

The L’Anse and Baraga Fire Departments provided the fire extinguisher training, which had the seniors use the extinguishers on fires concentrated in bins. Afterwards the seniors learned about chest compressions and first aid from Wadaga and Bay Ambulance. The seniors practiced chest compressions on dummies and learned about stopping bleeding. Bleeding control was very important due to many senior citizens being on blood thinners, and the seniors learned how to apply pressure, pack wounds and apply tourniquets.

KBIC Police, Baraga County Sheriff’s Office and Michigan State Police (MSP) all gave presentations. KBIC Police provided a demonstration of their police dog. The Sheriff’s Office gave a presentation on Project Lifesaver, which provides locator devices to individuals who can have a tendency to wander such as those cognitive conditions. MSP gave a presentation on scams.

Staff from Baraga County Memorial Hospital then gave more presentations on things such as maintaining mental and physical health and how to practice fall reduction and home safety. RN Program Director for the Senior Life Solutions Program Emily Dault went over things such as positive affirmations and other practices to keep a healthy mindset for the seniors.

“And there’s also risk factors like isolation and going through different health struggles as you age,” Dault said. “Your body kind of starts failing you a little bit. So just we’ll be talking about how to counteract that stuff.”

Dault also said the event itself was a way to get senior citizens out and interacting with others, which can leave a positive impact on them.

“It gets the seniors out and talking to each other, but it also raises awareness. Because I don’t really think there’s a whole lot of resources in this area that talk about the different safety things that everybody here is talking about, and they’re learning a lot,” she said.