In droves, JHHS students become a part of the ‘CPR Ready Generation’
Under the Friday night lights, a group of Jackson Hole High School students urged their peers and the community to join the “CPR Ready Generation.”
The Heart Beaters Club took to the field Friday during the halftime show at the first home football game of the season, where the JHHS Broncs defeated the Lander Tigers. Not only did club members share their “vital” public safety message and perform a CPR demonstration on a manikin in front of the crowd, but the Jackson teens were also recognized by a national healthcare trainer as a founding school of the “CPR Ready Generation.”
Heart Beaters Club founder Metta Curzon and her fellow club members have already prepped hundreds of students to take action.
“I look around and I see all the people that I’ve taught in class,” Curzon, a 17-year-old senior, said. “And I realize that if any emergency happens, then I have full confidence they can act.”
She said this applies not just to adventures in the backcountry, but even to regular school days.
“We had a double fainting at the high school a couple of days ago,” Curzon said. “And a bunch of people approached and me and said, ‘After your class, I felt comfortable acting in the emergency.’”
Curzon and school nurse Beth Shidner have worked together over the past two years to establish the Heart Beaters Club. The organization aims to “ensure students are certified in CPR, first aid and automated external defibrillator (AED) usage throughout their high school careers and are able to use the skills they learn in classes after school if needed.”
Shidner approached Curzon after seeing the initiative the then-junior had taken to get trained up herself. The school nurse was teaching the Teton County School District staff and Curzon showed interest in also taking the class. She joined in and Shidner said she realized that Curzon was a natural. Shidner then sought Curzon’s help to train up other students.
Within a month, JHHS students Curzon and Piper Benjamin took a 10-hour in-person course to become certified CPR, AED and first aid trainers. They can help in an emergency, but they can also teach other students how to help save a person’s life. They’ve been sharing this knowledge in classes that students are already required to take in high school.
“It is super fun and rewarding to teach kids something that is so meaningful and that they can use outside of the classroom,” Benjamin said in a press release.
The Heart Beaters Club integrated CPR and first aid courses into the health, physical science and physics programs at JHHS. The training takes roughly two 55-minute classes. Over the past year, they’ve certified more than 400 students. The goal is to train every student at the high school by the end of the 2026-27 school year.
Students may not feel comfortable giving CPR after the class the first time they take it, but Shidner said they are empowered to call 911 or to get a portable defibrillator. She also said that the ninth graders who get the training will get certified again their junior year, solidifying confidence and experience.
“Not too many kids before they’re 17 or 18 years old are certified twice in adult CPR, AED and first aid,” she said.
The Red Cross has also supported these efforts by lowering the $40 certification to $10 per student, Shidner said.
JHHS students have earned the backing of WorldPoint, a CPR and healthcare training product supplier, who has led the charge of the “CPR Ready Generation” movement. The manikin supplier designated JHHS as one of three early schools helping establish the program for youth.
Shelly Amato, WorldPoint executive vice president, attended the Broncs football game Friday and helmed the Heart Beaters Club booth with students. Her team had plenty of merch to give out and presented a Founding School certification.
Amato said she was impressed by Curzon’s initiative.
“She is so unique, that she got certified to become a trainer,” she said. “That’s a pretty substantial commitment for a student who is doing other full-time things. We’re really excited to be here and it’s rare that it’s a student leading it.”
First responders also applauded the Heart Beaters Club. Erika Voorhees, a firefighter and paramedic in Jackson, learned about the movement at Friday’s game. She said it was great that the students were able to “recognize the importance of their generation being able to take care of those around them.”
“Early bystander CPR can be the difference of someone having a chance at survival or not,” Voorhees said.