View Articles:

The Monmouth Journal

“CHASE For Life video premiers at Two River Film Festival”

LITTLE SILVER
Paddy the Penguin is a lovable character. He’s cute, well spoken and really the knows a lot about the basics of C.P.R and the Heimlich maneuver. He had better, because he is the star of a new video entitled “How to Save a Life”.

The video, which seeks to teach life-saving procedures in a fun and easy-to-remember way, is the brainchild of Farley Boyle of Little Silver, who founded her organization after her two-year-old daughter was saved from drowning because her husband knew CPR. After the event, Boyle, wanting to do something drastic that would change the statistics of preventable deaths statewide, established her organization to better educate people about CPR and Heimlich procedures that are proven, easy-to-learn life-saving techniques. C.H.A.S.E. stands for CPR Heimlich Awareness Safety Education and it’s also the name of Farley’s two-year-old little girl.

“How to Save a Life”, cleverly produced by ZCreative Tribeca Production Studios in New York, debuted this weekend at the Two River Film Festival’s Children’s Festival at Monmouth University’s Pollack Auditorium. In just under eighteen minutes, this fun introduction to life-saving teaches its viewers young and old, the important steps in performing the procedures that could, one day, save a life. In the film, Paddy and his friends at the zoo illustrate exactly how to save a life. They also make it fun and memorable by singing about it, repeating important points so that children and adults won’t forget the necessary steps, should they ever need to use them.

Boyle’s long-term goal is to provide the video at no cost to hospitals throughout the state in order to provide new mothers with infant/child CPR and Heimlich training before they are discharged with their newborns. And health care company, Meridian Health likes the idea.

According to John Lloyd, President and CEO of Meridian Health, C.H.A.S.E. for Life is a natural fit for Meridian which oversees three local hospitals: Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune and Ocean Medical Center in Brick. “ We immediately recognized the passion and vision behind this initiative and believe that it will be a valuable tool for thousands of patients and their families,” he said.

Rich Hader, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Office for Meridian and Bill Faverzani, Corporate Director of Child Services for Meridian were both on hand at the film’s debut. “We are very excited about the potential for this short film, “ said Hader, who hopes that, through the light-hearted presentation of the topic, people will see that no special training is needed to assist someone in trouble. “Hopefully, people will see that anyone can do this,” he offered.

Bettina Forbes, of Little Silver, saw the debut of “How to Save a Life,” with her young son Raymond. “It was great,” she said, “I think most of us know that we should learn these things, but most people don’t want to think about it. The thought of this kind of emergency is scary- especially to anyone with young children.” Forbes found that the light treatment and happy tone of the film helped make the topic less frightening. “I think more people will know what to do after they’ve seen it. It’s easy to remember,” she said and her son Raymond liked it, too.

If Farley Boyle has her way, anyone with contact with young children will get to see “How to Save a Life.” Hopefully, Paddy the penguin and his friends will become familiar to parents and children across New Jersey. “If people remember only 20 percent of what they learned here today, they have an 80 percent chance of saving a life one day,” says Boyle.

For more information on  “How to Save a Life” contact C.H.A.S.E. for Life through their website at
www.chaseforlife.org
or call 1-888-547-4460.