Emergency Medical Services Day brings together local communities and medical personnel to promote safety, honour the dedication of paramedics who save people’s lives on the front lines of our health care system every day.

SEIU Paramedics this year plan to give even more back to their communities with Operation BrainSave.

More than 50 children in Canada die every year from bicycle accidents. What makes these deaths especially tragic is that 75% of these deaths could have been prevented if victims had simply worn a bicycle helmet. That’s why SEIU paramedics are launching Operation BrainSave, a campaign that encourages children to wear bicycle helmets.

Kids commonly complain that helmets are hot, uncomfortable, and are worried that their friends will call them “dorky”.

But SEIU paramedics are on alert and are giving children some great kid-friendly incentives for wearing a helmet. And it is working!

SEIU paramedics launched Operation BrainSave in Kapaskasing and Hearst. EMS professionals in the region were on the lookout for kids wearing helmets while they were riding their bicycles. Children wearing helmets were given coupons for McDonalds, Canadian Tire and other popular stores.

“We decided to use a carrot instead of a stick,” said Robert Keating an SEIU paramedic from northern Ontario. “We want to give kids a good, positive reason to wear their helmets.”

Not surprisingly, the number of kids wearing helmets skyrocketed. SEIU’s paramedic committee will launch Operation BrainSave across all SEIU paramedic units in the summer of 2010.