You’ve just gotta love the sights and sounds of children at play, and if last year’s Family Fun Night during Canaan Railroad Days was any indication, many will descend on Canaan’s Lawrence Field on Thursday , July 25th to enjoy dozens of kid-centric amusements. There will be hula hooping, slack-lining, hay maze, obstacle course, Frisbee, ring and bean bag tosses, food…

But, also like last year, one activity will be conspicuously quiet – unless we can do something about it.

Fairview Hospital will again host its Bystander CPR training program.  CPR Lite, as I like to call it, is a shortened version of the three hour CPR course that only takes  five minutes to learn- that’s right, just five minutes. In the time it takes to order a hot dog, pay for and eat it, you can learn a skill that could save a life.

Bystander CPR  is a hands-only technique (no mouth-to-mouth nastiness involved). You will learn chest compressions to the beat of the Bee Gees 1977 hit Stayin’ Alive. Fun, right?

The American Heart Association tells us that 350,000 of us will suffer cardiac arrest this year. If only 100 people learn this technique and then go about their lives, chances are that someday, somewhere, one of them is going to have a chance to help save someone’s life.

So this is what we are going to do to help – for every person up to 100 who visits the Bystander CPR tent on the 25th and learns this life-saving skill, sportingAcause.com will donate $5 to the North Canaan Ambulance Corp.

Last year two eager EMT’s and a practice dummy waited for someone , anyone to stop by and learn their life-saving lesson. Few did. Let’s change that this year.

For a two-hour time span on a warm summer night, you can entertain your kids, have a hot dog, trigger a donation to a worthy local cause and learn how to save a life.

Time well spent I’d say.