Last weekend my husband, son, and dad played in a disc golf tournament at a nearby county park. My daughter and I wanted to watch them throw a few discs and hopefully cheer them on to victory, so once we wrapped up our morning activities we drove out to the park.
We had just climbed out of the car and were preparing to coat ourselves in sunscreen when a woman came running out a nearby grove of trees. In my direction – and in the general direction of all those in the parking lot – the woman shouted, “do any of you have a bandage?!”
One man completely ignored the woman’s request, while another couple began searching frantically through their bags. When the couple came up empty handed, I walked calmly to my trunk, popped it open, and pulled out my trusty American Red Cross first aid kit.
As I did so, my daughter quietly asked, “you have Band-aids, right Mama? You always have Band-Aids”.
I called the woman over to my car and asked her describe the victim’s wound. As I pulled supplies – alcohol wipes to clean the wound, gauze pads to stop the bleeding, a bandage to apply once the bleeding had slowed, and a back-up bandage for later – from my first aid kit, the woman took a deep breath, smiled, and acknowledged that she “should have known to ask a mom first”. She added that I seemed more prepared than most, to which I replied, “I’m not just a mom, I’m also a Red Crosser.
The woman thanked me profusely and ran back into the trees to rejoin her friends. They must not have been too deep into the woods, because soon after she disappeared I heard her exclaim, “it was my lucky day! I found a mom who was also a Red Crosser!”
Will you be able to make someone’s day lucky? Click here to sign up for an American Red Cross CPR and First Aid class, and click here to purchase an American Red Cross first aid kit!