Secrets to saving a life revealed at Merrick Avenue Middle School

Big, blue canvas bags labeled “Little Anne” and “Baby Anne” sat at the entrance to the Merrick Avenue Middle School gymnasium last Thursday. Spread across the shiny wooden floor in neat rows were mannequins, a.k.a. dummies. And in a corner, physical-education teachers Art Canestro, Mallory Cogen and Jason Dove were showing a film that revealed the secrets to saving a life with only your hands and mouth to a class of eighth-graders.

Soon the students were kneeling before the mannequins, pumping the dummies’ chests with their locked hands and breathing into their plastic mouths.

In recent weeks, MAMS phys.-ed. teachers have foregone their free periods, teaching throughout the day in an effort to certify all 978 students at the school in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The project is a joint effort between Merrick Avenue and Forever 9: The Robbie Levine Foundation, a Merrick-based nonprofit group that raises money to provide youth groups and schools with automated external defibrillators, as well as train sports coaches and students in CPR.

Jill and Craig Levine of Merrick started the foundation in honor of their late son, Robbie, who died suddenly on Sept. 27, 2005, when his heart stopped while he was running the bases during a Little League practice. The foundation contributed $9,000 to purchase the mannequins for the MAMS training. The Levines’ younger son, Josh, now attends the middle school. Jill was present to watch the students learn life-saving skills last week.

Saul Lerner, the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District’s director of health, physical education and athletics, said, “There is no downside” to teaching middle school students CPR. Jill Levine noted that the Merrick community’s potential pool of lifesavers has increased by nearly a thousand with the recent MAMS training.

Principal Caryn Blum said the training would “stay with [the students] always.” Blum, who will become the Central District’s assistant superintendent for instruction on July 1, said she hopes to continue the CPR program at MAMS next year, while also expanding it to Grand Avenue Middle School in Bellmore.