South Butler Community Library hosts Healthy Heart Expo
SAXONBURG — Children and adults not only learned how to keep their hearts healthy, but heard about equipment used to provide emergency life saving care on the heart on Saturday, Nov. 1, at the South Butler Community Library. The library was hosting a Healthy Heart Expo, which featured numerous lessons about bodily health.
Students from Oakland Catholic High School’s chapter of “Guardians of the Heart” used interactive activities and stories to teach children how the heart functions and raising awareness about having a healthy heart.
The students helped the you children make healthy trail mixes from snacks containing minerals, whole grains, healthy fats and antioxidants.
The Alle-Kiski Health Foundation offered blood pressure checks for adults.
Chuck Lewis, a paramedic with the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company Ambulance Service, connected a couple of the children to a pulse oximeter and a monitor to explain the heart beat, blood pressure and blood oxygen level.
In the parking lot outside the library, Lewis explained how the medical equipment on an ambulance works, before letting the children operate a power-assisted gurney after a demonstration.
Michael Beamer, a Knoch High School graduate who lives in Butler Township, said his sons Percy, 7, and Elias, 3, are home schooled, and he brought them to the expo to take advantage of the opportunity for community learning. The children’s grandmother, Karen Keffalas, came with them.
“We love doing learning programs in the community,” Beamer said. “My boys are home schooled. These learning programs are a great resource.”
He also said he went to high school with Lewis’s children, and appreciated him teaching the children about the ambulance.
Oakland Catholic High School students and Guardians of the Heart members Jules Phipps, a senior, her younger sister Cecilia, and senior, Lucas Conley, travel to libraries throughout the area to teach children about the heart and heart disease. They do this to raise awareness about heart health, Phipps said.
The group reads books with children and uses games and crafts to teach children about heart disease prevention, she said.
Bridget Weleski, library youth program director, said Guardians of the Heart contacted the library about putting on a program. Saturday was the first time the group came to the library.
The goal of the program is to teach children about the heart and how to keep their hearts healthy.
Library Director Michelle Lesniak said she likes giving students like the Guardians of the Heart opportunities to help the community.
“We like to support kids trying to do good things,” Lesniak said.
