THOMPSON FALLS - Last Wednesday, the Sanders County community was treated to a free life saving class in the Justice Court Room in the Court House.

Kristi Conroy of St. Vincent Healthcare ran training classes in hands-only CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), from 8:30 a.m. till 12:00. At 12:15 p.m. she taught a class of individuals full CPR, which required an online pre-class.

The CPR class was part of a grant-funded program who’s aim is to increase CPR knowledge throughout Montana.

“I’m part of St. Vincent Healthcare and it is a federal grant we were awarded and I manage that grant, part of that grant is to deploy AED (automated external defibrillator) into rural and frontier Montana and to teach hands-only CPR.”

The word was spread on community posts the week prior, and people could sign up online or could walk in at posted times and take the course for 45 minutes and become hands-only CPR certified.

Conroy noted that her group (St. Vincent Healthcare) has trained over 35,000 people and has deployed over 178 AED’s in Montana.

“I think everybody in Montana... everybody in the U.S... in the world should know CPR,” Conroy said.