The 7th annual session of Rescue Divas EMS Camp For Girls return to Northland College and was held July 30th – August 3rd, 2023. Rescue Divas is a 5 day-4 night residential camp provided by Northwest Wisconsin CEP in collaboration with many community partners, sponsors and EMS agencies to expose middle school aged girls from northwest Wisconsin counties to careers and volunteer opportunities in EMS. Twenty girls arrived to kick off Rescue Divas 2023 on Sunday afternoon. The focus of the first afternoon and evening is for the girls and counselors to get to know each other. There was a campfire with special guests from the Ashland Fire Department along with games inside and outside of the dorm.
Our first full day which is typically a training day was a full day indeed. The day started with Erika training the girls in CPR and just before lunch, Sherry and Jeff from Washburn Emergency Services arrived and taught the girls all about the ambulance inside and out. After lunch, Hannah from Phillips Community Pool returned for water safety training followed by Ben from Superior Choice Credit Union talking to the girls about EMS expenses using a fun Price is Right style game and to start thinking about budgets for possible education and careers in the field. Erika finished up CPR training later in the afternoon with some help from former Rescue Divas camper and counselor Ryanne of Ashland Fire. Erika also got a start on First Aid training which will be completed later this week. After dinner, Mary Ross joined us to talk about volunteer opportunities with the National Ski Patrol and her many years in EMS. After some free time, we ended the night with an outdoor movie watching Rescued By Ruby with popcorn of course (donated by Kwik Trip).
Day 3 is field trip day which started out big with the landing of the Life Link III helicopter followed by demonstrations about the Emergency Department and decontamination procedures at Memorial Medical Center. Next up was a tour of Ashland Police Department and then they were off to the Ashland Fire Department for lunch and a full afternoon of activities including a visit from Gorgia and Ryanne of the Bayfield County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch. After dinner back at Northland College, the BART bus was back to take the girls to National Night Out. After participating in the fun activities and helping out with games and clean-up, the girls walked back to the dorm with a pit stop at the playground.
Our last full day was Wednesday which we started off by finishing our training with Erika before heading to the lawn for self defense training with Master Todd and Master Jill of Long Island Tae Kwon Do. A very busy, hot and humid, afternoon was spent with a large team – human and canine! – from Sawyer County Search And Rescue. Another favorite Rescue Divas tradition! Many lessons were taught with tracking, canines, drones and more before the girls participated in a full mock search of two individuals lost in the woods. Finally, the girls did a service project making blankets for Project Linus Ashland/Bayfield/Sawyer Counties WI along with a cute fleece octopus project that Terry brought along so the girls would have something to take home as all the blankets are donated to local hospitals and other agencies to be given to children going through hard times.
Thursday was a relatively relaxing morning with just one final guest. Skyler Dural-Eder from Northwest Wisconsin CEP presented a condensed version of her school presentation “Hired!” which focuses on soft skills such as communication and the importance of a great attitude. Valuable skills for the girls in their future work & volunteer environments and in life in general. Clean-up, packing, signing thank you notes and post-assessments with Erika filled the rest of the morning. After lunch, there was a presentation recapping the week with parents and guests before the girls said their goodbyes.
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