Washington Activity Center’s director of summer programming, Kristian Riess, joined Sahil Bagai, Suhaan Sharma and Sanath Seetharam when they presented their Life Savers Phoenix program at the center June 12-14 (submitted photo).
What did you do over summer break? It’s a common question asked when young people return to school for a new year. But how many of them can say, “I helped save lives?” Well, at least three rising sophomores at Brophy College Preparatory can.
Over the summer months, Sahil Bagai, Sanath Seetharam and Suhaan Sharma, co-founders of Life Savers Phoenix, worked at seven Phoenix community centers – including North Central’s Longview, Sunnyslope and Washington centers – a local library and their own temple to teach practical, life-saving skills to young people ages eight to 12.
The idea for the program came to the 14- and 15-year-olds during their freshman year.
“We realized that there were so many preventable drownings, heat stroke and heat related deaths, especially in Arizona, as well as things like poison and other things that run rampant,” Seetharam recalled. “We knew that we wanted to do something about it, but we just weren’t sure what.”
Once they landed on the idea of training young people in under-resourced communities, the trio had to undergo some training themselves.
“We’ve been CPR and AED (automated external defibrillator) certified training instructors,” said Sharma. “And in order to teach poison control, we were trained by the toxicologists at Banner Health and the Poison Control Center. They taught us how to deal with poisonous animals and how to teach the kids. We have talked to child life experts at HonorHealth; they us how to teach these topics to kids in a way that they can understand and where they can actually absorb the information and use it in their daily lives. And then lastly, we are volunteers at the American Heart Association. We go to their heart walks, and we teach CPR and AED usage to students and adults that want to learn.”
And thanks to an initial grant of $4,800 from the Dragon Kim Foundation, the young men were able to launch Life Savers Phoenix this summer.
At Sunnyslope Community Center, more than 100 young campers received hands-on safety education over the course of three days. A spokesperson for the City of Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department said that their lessons were interactive, fun and engaging, helping kids retain important safety knowledge while staying involved.
“The Life Savers Phoenix team was great,” Sunnyslope staff told us. “They connected with our campers right away and made their topics easy to understand. The kids enjoyed the activities and were genuinely excited to share what they learned each day. It was clear the group was well-prepared, passionate and hopefully made a lasting impact.”
The team hopes to expand the program and build partnerships with schools across the Valley and even build a scalable toolkit where kids can start programs in their own communities and reach as many kids as possible, Sharma said.
“We want to build a generation of capable leaders who can step up when it matters most,” he said.
Seetharam agreed and offered advice to his peers who may be looking for a way to make a difference in their community.
“Just put yourself out there,” he said. “Don’t be scared about rejection. It’s a natural part of the process. But if you work hard enough, if you hustle… then no matter how many rejections you get, there will be some yeses and then something that might start small could turn out really great.”
A website is in the works. In the meantime, residents can connect with the team on LinkedIn or by following them on Instagram: @Life_Savers_Phoenix.
