Auto dealers in metropolitan New York have a lifesaving way to serve their communities: donating manikins that train emergency responders in CPR.
For nearly 20 years, the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association has distributed the training manikins to its members, who give them to local police and fire departments, schools, hospitals and community centers.
The association, which represents about 650 franchised new-vehicle dealers, conducts the program in partnership with the National Automobile Dealers Charitable Foundation.
Late last year, Classic Audi in Eastchester, N.Y., donated a CPR manikin to the Eastchester Fire Department. The model provides defibrillator access and digital readouts.
Tim Shishko, Classic Audi's general sales manager, says dealership executives felt the fire department, "along with our community, would truly benefit from having this device."
Eastchester's Fire Department has 70 employees in five locations, serving three communities and 38,000 people. Capt. Philip Pinto says each employee is a state-certified emergency medical technician. Equipment such as the CPR manikin helps "keep everyone current in-house," he says.
"We have saved more lives through CPR and defibrillation than by pulling people from fires," Pinto says. "It is truly a generous donation."
Mark Schienberg, president of the New York dealers association, says the regional group distributed 16 CPR manikins in 2016. NADA buys manikins through its charitable foundation and allocates them annually among each state, he adds.
At one New York presentation of a manikin last year, he notes, a fire truck arrived at a dealership where several employees wore their volunteer firefighter uniforms.
"It shows how staff are involved when away from work," Schienberg says. c
