Local RCMP officer establishes lifesaving CPR program in remote Labrador community

Thanks to the leadership of RCMP Constable Peter MacIntyre, all high school students in the remote community of Mary’s Harbour, Labrador, are being empowered to save lives.

Like many remote Canadian communities, medical facilities are scarce in the community of Mary’s Harbour, and the nearest ambulance is stationed 50 kilometres away. Local health services consist of one small medical clinic with two nurses on call. So when Constable MacIntyre saw an opportunity to fill this need by training high school students to react in emergencies, he jumped at the chance.

“Coming from a family that has lost people to heart attack, I see firsthand how under-prepared we are as a society to try and help save our friends and loved ones,” said MacIntyre.

MacIntyre recognized the RCMP was in a great position to help the local school coordinate with a CPR trainer to set up the ACT High School CPR Program.

Through a basic Internet search, MacIntyre discovered the ACT Foundation, and approached the national charitable organization to join its campaign to establish CPR in every Canadian high school. He requested resources that would allow him to bring the program to St. Mary’s All Grade School students at no cost to the school.

CPR trainer Ted Rumbolt volunteered to teach the program to every student in Grade 9 through 12, and he said the program was received very well.

“The students were very interested and involved in the material,” says Rumbolt.
But Constable MacIntyre didn’t stop there.

After seeing the success in the program at St. Mary’s All Grade, he worked with ACT to extend the lifesaving program to two more schools in his jurisdiction: DC Young and St Lewis Academy.

More than 100 high school students are being trained each year.

“The CPR trained citizen becomes the critical first link in the emergency response system when an emergency occurs,” said Sandra Clarke, Executive Director of the ACT Foundation.

“With the leadership that Constable MacIntyre, his detachment, and Ted Rumbolt have shown, these CPR trained students can now make the difference between life and death,” she added.

RCMP officers who would like to follow MacIntyre’s lead should visit call the ACT Foundation at 1-800-465-9111.

The ACT High School CPR Program was made possible thanks to the generous support of ACT’s core partners, companies in the research-based pharmaceutical industry: AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada, Pfizer Canada and sanofi-aventis. They provide ACT’s sustaining funding and are committed to the Foundation’s national goal of promoting health and empowering Canadians to save lives.

The Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation is an award-winning, national charitable organization dedicated to establishing CPR in high schools across Canada. ACT raises funds to donate mannequins, teacher training, manuals and other materials to schools and guides schools in program set-up and long-term sustainability. Teachers teach CPR to their students as a regular part of the curriculum. More than 1.4 million youth have been trained in CPR through this lifesaving program to date.