ANDALUSIA, Ill. — Before guests hit the slopes this winter, the Snowstar ski resort rescue team got some training from the skies.
Medforce Air, a nonprofit helicopter EMS team operating out of West Burlington, Iowa and Colona, Illinois visited Snowstar to assist in training its National Ski Patrol members. Currently there are 27 of these volunteers at Snowstar.
On Oct. 8, Medforce landed their helicopter at a designated area near the parking lot, giving the rescue volunteers a chance to see the vehicle up-close and get a better understanding of how to coordinate with the team for first response. "Just having a predesignated landing zone — like hey, we wanna land here every time if we can — makes things established to be safer, everybody knows what the plan is, and we're all on the same page," lead flight nurse Justin Hicks said.
Snowstar has three ski patrol trainees, one of them being June Heller, who has no prior experience in medical care but welcomes the challenge. "The training part is pretty intense, [and] there's a lot to learn about the body," she said.
Heller added that volunteering gives her a chance to enjoy skiing more and pick up valuable skills. For example, the Oct. 8 practice also included CPR training and rescue methods for those trapped on the ski lifts. "It's not just techniques —you gotta have a little bit of a medical base before you treat somebody," she explained. "We're just there to make sure we don't hurt anybody as we're moving them up and provide basic care, to make sure they're okay for the ambulance."