AICP Joins with PERG Member to Jointly Provide Lifesaving Training

| PERG News: September 2017 |

Letter to the Editor 

Hey all,

I want to share something that we recently took part in and the back story behind it.

PC&E recently supplied lighting and grip and camera to a job that shot in Birmingham AL. The dolly grip on the job is a long-time friend of the company and was one of the first people that I worked with locally when I got in the business long ago. I like to say he was someone I met when I could part my hair. 

Walking back from lunch, the dolly grip dropped to the floor, a victim of cardiac arrest. The gaffer, Stan Fyfe, performed CPR for six minutes until the EMT crew arrived. The grip survived, and after two weeks in the hospital and the addition of a pacemaker/defibrillator combo he came home to Atlanta. He has a long recovery ahead of him and can’t drive for at least seven months.  Various things were done locally to help. A GoFundMe account was started and has since raised over $46K. Worker’s Comp paperwork was filed immediately by the production company he was working for at the time. I passed along info about ESTA’s “Behind the Scenes” grants to the family as well.

PC&E partnered with our local AICP chapter to offer CPR training. This was a collaborative effort that I’m proud of, and I think it is a great template for other PERG members.  We are Associate Members of AICP SE and have been forever. The new chapter president, Tabitha Mason-Elliot, is determined to create broader outreach for the chapter. As soon I heard about the incident, I decided to offer CPR training to the community and when I reached out to Tabitha, she and the board of the AICP SE came through in a major way in their sponsorship. Stan Fyfe, the gaffer that performed CPR, hooked us up with CPR Training School, which provided instructors and worked with us to make training possible for 75 members of the Atlanta Film Community.

Many PERG members may already do something like this in your respective markets, but not only is it a great way to partner with AICP (or other groups in your market), but it is actually something that does some good and can clearly make a difference to someone’s life.

I encourage everyone to think about offering CPR training in your market or community. 

Mark Wofford

General Manager

Production Consultants and Equipment (PC&E)
An Employee Owned Company