Teacher receives Red Cross Lifesaving Award

 On Monday, Jan. 9, at the Lake Fenton Board of Education meeting, a West Shore Elementary kindergarten teacher was honored as a hero for saving a student’s life. Carlee Ramirez’s colleagues, friends and family surprised her by attending the meeting where she received a Red Cross Lifesaving Award. 

 On June 14, 2022, Charlie Rohen, 6, choked on a Dum Dum sucker. Ramirez performed life-saving actions to dislodge the sucker from her throat. She has been a teacher at Lake Fenton Community Schools for 16 years. 

 “We’re here to honor everyday heroes,” said Besky Gaskin, executive director of the American Red Cross East Central Bay Chapter, who presented Ramirez with the award. “We know emergencies arise every day. Last week, we saw on national television during an NFL game someone collapsed and someone performed CPR and first aid. It happens at family picnics, it happens in the office, it happens in the grocery store parking lot and sometimes on hot summer days at summer school.”

 “When an emergency arises, what we always see is a crowd of people. Some of them get on their knees and they start praying immediately for a victim until a hero arises and knows what to do and takes immediate action to sustain or save a life,” Gaskin said. 

 Gaskin, who has four children who all graduated from Lake Fenton, said Ramirez is very special to her. They’ve known each other for years. Gaskin’s great nephew came home from summer school that day and told her how Ramirez saved someone’s life.

 “The Red Cross doesn’t take these lifesaving awards lightly,” she said. The “Certificate of Extraordinary Personal Action” was presented to Ramirez for “selfless and humane action using lifesaving skills” and exemplifying the mission of the Red Cross.

 The Red Cross has presented Lifesaving Awards since 1911. These awards are meant to celebrate and recognize people who step up in the face of emergencies to sustain life. Since 2018, they’ve presented more than 2,000 of these awards. 

 Teacher Patti Sabourin, Carlee’s best friend, convinced her to attend the Monday meeting but wasn’t honest about the purpose so the award was a surprise to Ramirez. Sabourin knew after hearing what happened on June 14 that Ramirez deserved the recognition. 

 “You’ve always put kids first. You love kids, you’ve devoted your life to kids and you need to be celebrated for this,” she said. Sabourin and Ramirez usually handle pick up time in the parking lot, and on June 14, she noticed that her friend was missing. Ramirez ran out of the building in tears and frantically explained to her what happened. 

 “So I’m thankful for you, the people in this community are thankful for you, Becky’s thankful and most importantly, one family is very thankful for you,” she said. Ramirez was surprised to see the Rohen family in attendance on Monday. 

 Charlie’s mom, Morgan Rohen, said on the day Charlie choked, she was in the car headed to Mexico when Ramirez called her and told her what happened. 

 “We both cried on the phone after. She kept telling me to go on my vacation, so I went. She was alive so I was good,” she said. “We’re super grateful for her and her quick thinking and actions to help save Charlie that day. While she is a great colleague, friend and abuela by choice, because she has been in our lives forever and would hold Charlie as a newborn at basketball games, she is also forever in our hearts going to be a hero.”

 Ramirez said the situation was very scary and traumatic.  

 “It’s like you know what to do, but then you don’t think you know what to do and then you just do it,” she said. “To stand here and be honored like this makes me feel tremendously proud of myself and the kids in the room were amazing. Dum Dum suckers are now forbidden…it lodged just in the right way and the thing went shooting out just like you think it happens. Thank you all very very much.”

 Gaskin also stressed the importance of being trained in CPR and first aid.

 West Shore Principal Laura Yeaster said Ramirez has been one of the directors for their summer school program for years and she’s viewed as an expert in education. 

 “If you know Carlee, you know that she is a protector of her students…. They are her babies she sees as her responsibility to take the very best care of them when they’re with her. Just as she would if they were her own children,” she said. “On this particular day, Carlee did just that…she did whatever was necessary to help out Charlie. Because of her quick thinking and actions, Carlee kept a scary situation from becoming life-threatening. So thank you Carlee for always helping your students. Your students are so lucky to have you.”