"Breakfast With Santa" Pro EMS Center for MEDICS Director Chris Kerley to Lead Team of Paramedic Students on Humanitarian Mission to Haiti, Distributing Toys and Food to More than 1,900 Orphans and Providing Medical Care to Cholera-Stricken Rural Communities

Embarking on Christmas Eve, the seven-day mission is being conducted in collaboration with a Boston-based non-profit group called Sante Fanm Ak Lafanmi.

Cambridge, MA, December 2010 - On Christmas morning, Pro EMS Center for MEDICS Director Chris Kerley will be dressed as Santa Claus and leading a team of paramedic students to two orphanages in Haiti, where he will bring toys and breakfast to more than 1,900 children who lost their parents during this year’s devastating earthquake.

The Pro EMS Center for MEDICS has collected more than 1,400 toys for the children, ages 3 to 8. The Center has also collected donations towards the children’s breakfast; Kerley himself will oversee the purchase of the food, and its distribution to the children, many of whom are living outside in makeshift shelters and are only fed periodically.

“In many cases, 5 and 8 year olds are taking care of the 3 year olds,” Kerley said. “We are going to buy food for them locally and provide them with meals so that they can enjoy a Christmas celebration.”

The Center for MEDICS is conducting this humanitarian mission in collaboration with the Boston-based non-profit group Sante Fanm Ak Lafanmi, an organization started by Sherline Chery-Morisset, a Haitian immigrant who works as a nurse practitioner at Boston Medical Center, and whose husband studied under Kerley to become a paramedic. More information about the group can be found at www.santfanmaklafanmi.org.

The four students accompanying Kerley raised money among their peers to pay for the flight to Haiti, the second time this year that the Center for MEDICS has sponsored a trip to the region to help earthquake victims. Earlier this year, Kerley and two other paramedics joined a surgical team that went to the Dominican Republic to treat Haitian refugees.

Following the Christmas celebration, the Center for MEDICS team will travel to rural clinics near Port au Prince to treat cholera patients and provide basic medical care. Many government-run clinics close during the week between Christmas and New Year’s for the holiday season; the Center for MEDICS team received permission to open one of the clinics and run it so that medical care for these patients can continue uninterrupted.

Kerley and his team depart for the mission on Christmas Eve. Until then, the Center for MEDICS is accepting toys, as well as financial donations, to help the children.

More information about the Center for MEDICS can be found on its website, www.centerformedics.com.

About Pro EMS Center for MEDICS

Pro EMS Center for MEDICS is the premiere paramedic education program and simulation training lab for emergency medical services in the Northeast. As the first, and only, nationally accredited paramedic program in the state of Massachusetts, the Center for MEDICS offers one of the most rigorous paramedic programs in the U.S., as well as a variety of specialty courses that are designed to allow EMS service providers to achieve the highest standards in the industry.
The Center works with all members of the EMS community - from EMTs and Paramedics to Firefighters, Police Officers, Military Personnel, Physicians, and Nurses. It is the only EMS educational facility in Massachusetts to be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) upon the recommendation of the Committee on Accreditation of Educational Programs for the Emergency Medical Services Professions (CoAEMSP). The Center is also accredited by Massachusetts Department of Public Health as a Training Institution.

More information about Pro EMS Center for MEDICS can be found at www.centerformedics.com or by calling (617) 682-1811.

Media contact:
Christine Dunn
Savoir Media
617.484.1660
cdunn@savoirmedia.com