ABOVE: Superintendent Lisa Shellum, left, and Nurse Cairne Eytcheson hold one of the AEDs they currently have on site. Thanks to grant money from the state of Minnesota, they will be able to add one more this year and another the next year to place at Truman outdoor athletic fields.

TRUMAN – Truman Public School was one of 31 districts across Minnesota to receive a piece of $836,000 in grants from the state to help assist in funding cardiac response plans.

Truman Nurse Cairne Eytcheson first found out about the grant through the state school nursing association.

“We have a base camp that we receive information on regularly,” she said. “That’s where I had seen the information, which led me to look to the Minnesota site for it.”

Notices were sent out around September of last year, and Eytcheson got to work.

“We had about one month to write this grant,” she said. “I spent about 16 hours. They have a very specific [process] with the state. I’ve never seen one quite so in-depth that you have to answer stuff, and it relates back to previous things you did. There’s also a financial spreadsheet you have to do for exactly what you’re going to spend the money on.”

After writing the request, Eytcheson brought what she had written to Superintendent Lisa Shellum. Together, they spent another eight to 10 hours reviewing everything and ensuring it was ready to send. Shellum said they are glad to have someone like Eytcheson on board at Truman Schools.

“I’m glad she is such a good person to go and find these grants,” she said. “She went and found the money because budgets are tight. Having resourceful people like her to help find money to make, to better our school district, to make sure that we’re safe and have all the equipment we need, is much appreciated.”

Truman Schools was approved for $22,000 in funding after requesting $25,000. Part of this is for new CPR training equipment.

“Now it can give feedback to the students,” Eytcheson said. “While I’m doing CPR, I can see a light flashing on the shoulder of the mannequin that will tell me either I’m doing compressions correctly or I’m not, I’m doing breaths correctly or I’m not, so that it lights up. It also covered some training materials.”

The replacement was desperately needed, as the old CPR training modules they had were so outdated that they could no longer be used.

“It’s already gone,” Eytcheson said. “When we took our class last spring, you can’t legally teach on it anymore.”

By getting new CPR training machines, Eytcheson said it opens up new opportunities to teach students and the community.

“We can add CPR classes to our community ed teachings,” she said. “We can offer it to the community. The students will get it in high school. They get offered CPR once in high school. My goal is that we’ll teach the class. We’re going to do the full CPR class in their health class, and the students will take the written test, just as if they took the CPR class outside of school.”

The new CPR equipment will be arriving at the school within the next few school days.

In addition to this, Truman will be getting two new AEDs. Currently they only have two AEDs, one in the elementary school and one in the high school. If a cardiac emergency were to happen outside of these areas, like at a baseball game, an AED wouldn’t be there. These new AEDs will be set up at both of Truman’s outdoor activity fields so they are covered in case of emergencies.

“The goal is to buy one of the AEDs this year and then buy one after the first of the year,” Eytcheson said.

They had already been replacing prior AEDs over the past two years. By adding two this year and next, they will have spread it out over four years and reduced the cost.

Currently, the plan is for CPR classes to start next fall, and Eytcheson is eyeing a spring class to go through training with Truman staff.