Safety and emergency preparedness were defining themes at the Boys and Girls Club of North San Luis Obispo County in Paso Robles on Friday, as students there underwent a Basic Aid Training program, dubbed “BAT.”

BAT is a comprehensive program developed by the Red Cross, which teaches children the simple steps of responding to and preventing emergencies. The program, which is tailored towards children of variable age ranges, utilizes the three tenets, or “Three C’s,” of emergency response — check, call and care. Those three principles can be applied to all types of emergency situations faced by people of all ages.

“It is really sort of in language that kids of this age can understand,” said Grace McIntosh, executive director of SLO County Red Cross. “It gives basic tips on how to take care of yourself or somebody that is hurt — what to really do. They make it fun for kids.”

Though BAT is part of a countywide program, which has been staged in educational facilities around SLO County, this is the first time that the program has found its way into Paso Robles. Taught by members of the newly formed Paso Robles High School Red Cross Youth Club and coordinated by Red Cross Youth Coordinator Jenny Alsup, the program is also a way for local teens to develop leadership skills while teaching children in their community how to be safe in the face of an emergency. The PRHS Red Cross Youth Club is the eighth such club in SLO County, McIntosh said.

The BAT program in SLO County is funded through a grant issued by State Farm Insurance’s Good Neighbor Citizenship program. Several State Farm representatives were on hand on Friday to see the program take shape in the Paso Robles area.

“Obviously, it fit our criteria simply because it dealt with disaster prep,” said Greg Sherlock, public affairs official with State Farm, as to why the BAT program was singled out for such a grant. “What was so unique about this one was that they are actually going into the classrooms and they are actually teaching these kids about disaster prep response and State Farm is all over that. Obviously, we want adults to know what to do, but if we can teach children the same thing, that it is great.”

As a part of the kid-friendly program on Friday, more than 30 children at the Boys and Girls Club in Paso Robles were given a coloring book, which included 53 pages of simple explanations on how to prevent and respond to emergencies. In accordance with the “Three C’s,” the children were taught to check and see if the situation was safe, call for help either by retrieving an adult or dialing 911 and to care for the wounded party.

The children were rotated in small groups between safety stations where members of the PRHS Red Cross Youth Club taught them about different safety precautions and ways to respond to different emergencies. Those specific emergencies included car and seat belt safety, poisonous substances, animal bites, fire safety and electrical safety.

PRHS Red Cross Youth Club founder and president Jennifer Smith headed up the group that discussed fire prevention and response on Friday. The 15-year-old sophomore was inspired to form the club after visiting a Red Cross booth while volunteering with the Special Olympics.

“I wanted to become a nurse, and I saw it and I said ‘that sounds like fun,’” she said. “It looks good on college resumes also, but I was more interested in learning safety and all that.”

The six club members had been preparing for the tutorial for several weeks now, and Smith said that it was a little more difficult than she had initially anticipated.

“It was a little challenging to kind of get the kids to understand, to stop talking and listen, but it was fun,” she said. “I got to hear little stories from them about their fire incidents, but was a little difficult but very fun.”

The most rewarding part, Smith said, was in interacting with young children in such a way that they become more prepared for emergencies in the future. An added benefit for the young teens is that they acquire leadership skills and learn the value of volunteerism.

“One of the reasons why we do this is to try to instill that volunteering and giving back to the community is a really cool thing to do,” McIntosh said. “So, part of why we are doing this is to get our younger people excited about doing something that is of benefit to the community. We are really excited about it.”

Another goal of the program was to a forge a stronger relationship between the Red Cross of SLO County and Paso Robles satellite of the Boys and Girls Club.

“Our relationship with the Boys and Girls Club down south is really strong,” McIntosh said. “What we are hoping is that we can establish this and be a regular part of what they do [at the Boys and Girl Club of North San Luis Obispo County].”