A
SSOCIATED
N
EWSPAPERS OF
M
ICHIGAN
P
AGE
5
A
UGUST
18, 2011
I
NKSTER
- W
AYNE
- W
ESTLAND
Firefighters welcome new device
St. Mary Outreach Center in
Wayne has entered a powerful part-
nership with one of the best known
retail and grocery chains in the
state.
The center received approval last
month to once again partner with
Meijer in the Simply Give program
which will include the donation of
100 gift cards for the center to spend
to help stock the food pantry
shelves.
The gift cards are used to pur-
chase food throughout the year.
Participating in this programplays a
key role in helping to keep the food
pantry shelves stocked throughout
the year and with that, to help feed
the many needy families in the sur-
rounding communities, explained
Outreach Center Director Judy
Wells.
This is the third year the Wayne
facility has partnered with Meijer,
she said, and the cards are a big
help, particularly during the holiday
season.
“As unemployment has risen,
there are a greater number of peo-
ple relying on our local food banks,”
said Hank Meijer, co-chairman and
CEO of the Grand Rapids-based
retailer. “In addition to helping the
food pantries stock their shelves, we
also want to help families obtain
items that are generally not avail-
able at food pantries, such as perish-
able foods or items for those with
special dietary needs.”
“We are very grateful to the
Meijer stores for this opportunity,”
Wells said. “The donation of the gift
cards make it possible for us to
enhance our food supply.”
The center uses the cards to pur-
chase things like eggs, canned goods,
dairy products andmeat, she said.
Each Meijer store will provide
100 free gift cards, each valued at
$10, to a local food pantry to distrib-
ute to needy families. Each of the
18,900 gift cards donated by the com-
panywill be accompanied by a letter
from co-chairmen Hank and Doug
Meijer.
The program comes on the heels
of Meijer's successful Simply Give
program, where the company part-
nered with its customers to generate
gift cards for food pantries to use to
stock their shelves. To date, Meijer
and its customers have raised more
than $500,000 for local food pantries
throughout the Midwest, according
toHankMeijer.
Meijer donates more than 6 per-
cent of its net profit annually to a
broad group of charities and organi-
zations throughout the five states
where its stores are located, Meijer
said
The St. Mary Outreach Center,
located at 34646 Sims in Wayne, is
open from 9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.
Monday and Friday and from 9 a.m.
until noon on Tuesday, Wednesday
and Thursday. The center also pro-
vides a clothing bank for the needy.
A new device carried by first
responders from the Westland Fire
Department can now almost
instantly determine if a victim is
suffering from carbon monoxide
poisoning.
The new device, called the
Masimo Rad-57 Pulse CO-
Oximeter, uses multiple wave-
lengths of light tomeasure the level
of carbon monoxide poisoning in a
person's blood, without a painful
needle stick or blood draw. The
Westland department purchased
one Masimo Rad-57 to test for car-
bon monoxide poisoning in per-
sons at the scene of emergencies,
as well as those who present with
the signs and symptoms of carbon
monoxide poisoning, including
firefighters and Emergency
Medical Service personnel.
Funding for the $5,000 purchase
was provided through amulti-juris-
dictional grant through western
Wayne County Fire Mutual Aid
Association. A matching portion of
the grant was $799 which came
from the city fire department budg-
et.
“Carbon monoxide can be a
prevalent gas in any home that
burns fossil fuels. We now have the
ability to check CO levels for any-
one in a home that has CO detector
alarms. Additionally, we can also
monitor our fire fighters on the fire
ground for exposure to this poison-
ous gas during overhaul opera-
tions. This will be a valuable tool
for the citizens and fire fighters in
Westland” Fire Chief Michael
Reddy stated.
With the Rad-57, firefighters,
EMS professionals and ER clini-
cians have the ability to detect car-
bon monoxide poisoning in just
seconds with the push of a button.
Too often, even the most skilled
first responders have missed the
chance to treat carbon monoxide
poisoning early because there was-
n't a fast, accurate and noninvasive
way to detect elevated levels of CO
in the blood.
Signs and symptoms of carbon
monoxide poisoning mimic symp-
toms of the flu or even stress and
have ranged from mild to severe
headaches, shortness of breath,
nausea, dizziness, and fatigue to
altered judgment, confusion, men-
tal clouding, fainting, and seizures.
Shock, coma, and death have been
known to follow if the level of car-
bonmonoxide in the person's blood
continues to increase. When the
proper diagnosis is not made,
patients have been inadvertently
returned to a toxic environment
where their symptoms returned or
worsened, a fire department
spokesmannoted.
Even a single high-level expo-
sure, or prolonged exposure to low-
levels of CO, has been shown to
cause long-term heart, brain and
organdamage, he added.
Reading Rocks
Contest winner is named
The Jose Odum Morris
Literacy Project will have a spe-
cial guest Sept. 17 at the second
annual Literacy Day
Extravaganza in Inkster.
Terohn Mathis, a fifth grade
student at McDowell
Elementary School in Taylor,
will co-host the awards ceremo-
ny after winning the Reading
Rocks!contest sponsored by the
organization this year.
The contest, part of the
Annual Summer Reader's
Challenge, a competition
encouraging western Wayne
County students to read up to 20
or more hours each summer to
raise their literacy levels, asked
first through fifth graders in
Inkster, Westwood, Wayne-
Westland, Garden City,
Dearborn, Dearborn Heights,
Taylor, Belleville, Ecorse,
Romulus, Canton, Plymouth,
Redford, Livonia, Northville,
Van Buren Township, Huron
Township and Sumpter
Township schools to explain 20
words or less how “Reading
Rocks!”
Terohn's winning entry noted
that “reading rocks” for him so
much that it encouraged him to
create a scrapbook on the
Newberry Medal award-win-
ning book, Mrs. Frisby and the
Rats of Nimh (Aladdin Fantasy,
1971).
For more information about
literacy day, contact Morris at
(734) 620-1335.
The donation of the gift cards make
it possible for us to enhance our food supply.
”
Meijer donates gift cards to outreach center