Some time ago I expressed interest in becoming involved with the Learn and Live campaign. Learn and Live is a hard-hitting road safety campaign aimed at 17-24 year olds and tends to be delivered in colleges and high schools across Suffolk.
Before Christmas I'd seen the display boards set up at the station and had also had the chance to watch the presentation. I made enquiries as to whether retained firefighters could deliver the sessions and was told we most certainly could.
Having put this rash offer to the back of my mind it did come as a shock when Simon Reeves put me on standby for three presentations at Lowestoft College.
So for the last week I've been running through the presentation, knowing that it is a no holds barred 40 minutes of graphic images and startling statistics. And it doesn't matter how many times I see those road safety adverts, I still get a cold chill when they are run back to back.
My plans were thrown into disarray when Rachel asked me whether I was going to be the good firefighter or the bad firefighter. Once the scenario had been explained I opted for the good firefighter for the first of the two presentations.
Al Soards and I arrived at Lowestoft College in plenty of time and set up all our gear in the Students Common Room. The first group filed in quietly and sat down rather sheepishly, not knowing what to expect.
And then it hits them, right between the eyes. This presentation is full-on and you can see the group gradually sinking further in to their chairs and covering their faces to hide from the imagery they are witnessing on-screen.
At the end I ask if there are any questions. Not a sausage! They fill in their questionnaires and then shuffle slowly and quietly back out of the room.
We then had a bit of a gap before the next group were due. This time Al and I reversed our roles and I became 'bad firefighter'. So I did the warning to the group about the graphic nature of the presentation, making no apologies for its content. I think the message was received and understood.
About half-way through Al's presentation I noticed a guy on the front row, head bowed and eyes shut. His mates must know the score because a gentle prod was required from one of the staff to get him to full consciousness again. He looked over at me and I fixed him with my best Paddington Bear stare (now that's scary!). A few minutes later and he's losing it again. A cunning plan Baldrick! When Al is doing the seatbelt piece I cut in, step in front of the audience and give them a wakeup story. I recount an incident in which one of the passengers wasn't wearing a seatbelt, describing his injuries and what I had to do to remove him from the car. It worked. That guy didn't nod off again!
Having seen the reaction when a true story is being recounted certainly makes these presentations hit the mark. Stories are better than lectures... None so than when Al recounted the story of how he lost four friends in an RTC and his best friend was seriously injured. He should have been in that car but because he was late he didn't make the journey. It's little wonder that Al is 100% behind this Learn and Live campaign.
We must have done something right. Since the first two presentations of Learn and Live the College have signed us up for 7 more sessions! We're also hoping to get into the local high schools to spread the word further.
So if anyone reading this knows of a group of 17-24 year olds that would benefit from the Learn and Live presentation, just drop a line to Al at alan.soards@fire.suffolkcc.gov.uk.
