On Saturday area Boy Scouts held their annual First Aid Meet at The Corral at the LTHS South Campus.
Though the event is usual March mainstay for Portage Creek District Scouts, last year’s event was canceled due to COVID-19.
The First Aid Meet features Boy Scout troops competing to demonstrate proper first aid techniques in a variety of emergency situations. While all of that remained the same, this year’s meet didn’t include Webelos, younger Scouts who typically play the roles of accident victims. They were replaced by first aid dummies as a way to reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure, explained volunteer Clare Froemel. Froemel is also on the District Committee for Health, Safety and Risk Management.
The Scouts were required to wear masks, but irregularities aside, Froemel said it was a good event with a decent turnout.
“It went very well,” she said. “We had 15 to 16 teams.”
All Saints Episcopal Church Troop Three from Western Springs got first place.
“They were so happy and so few,” Tim Sturdeman, district executive, said. He explained that team only had four or five Scouts.
Still, he said it was impressive to see how competitive the event got.
“It was really cool to see them take the stage and one Scout pumping his fist all the way up onto the stage,” he said.
Those teams could have included up to eight Scouts. The district includes much of the western suburbs and it comes on the heels of the Klondike Derby, another skills challenge that runs much the same way as the First Aid Meet.
At the First Aid Meet, Scout teams are assigned various medical scenarios and they must use their training to aid victims including treating wounds, stabilizing broken bones, using stretchers and for teamwork. Scouts use their troop’s official first aid kit and skills from the Boy Scouts of America Handbook and the First Aid Merit Badge book.
This year Scouts had to demonstrate CPR technique, proper Heimlich maneuver, and epinephrine pen use. Scouts also had to compete in a medical Jeopardy!-style tournament.
Scouts did well overall.
“The judges said the Scouts were well prepared,” Froemel said. “And the paramedics came in and talked to them.”
COVID-19 risks aside, Froemel said in some respects it was easier for the Scouts not to have to deal with fake blood and wounds. Typically, their victims are made up as realistically as possible — including with bone fractures featuring chicken bones poking through skin.
“They work to makes the scenes real,” Froemel said.
But with trauma victims — even actors — can come trauma.
“Some of the kids look like their ready to faint,” Froemel said. “Two or three years ago we had to tell some of the kids ‘maybe you want to sit this one out.'”
This year, there was no risk of fainting and Strudeman said it was a success.
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“The event chair did a great job recognizing the patrols that did well in the stretcher race and the overall winners,” he said. “The winner of the meet, Troop Three, looked shocked to be the winners because of the way (event organizer) Angie (LoSavio) held it until the last announcement to make it a big reveal.”
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.