New father inspired to give booklet on first aid

When Karl Hereford was thinking of a way to help the Rotorua community, it was his unborn son that gave him a bright idea.

Mr Hereford paid for and distributed more than 4500 first aid booklets to primary schools and kindergartens on Monday, for local children to take home to their parents.

"Becoming a new father, I found myself worrying about this and that," he said.

Mr Hereford approached St John late last year with the idea of a first aid guide for parents with young children, using the St John first aid information to make a 20-page booklet.

Mr Hereford, who works as a real estate agent at Professionals, said it was a good way to profile himself while benefiting the community with something useful.

He got in contact with Rotorua schools earlier this year to see if they would find the booklets helpful. "I didn't want to give it to people if they didn't think it was going to be useful."

Mr Hereford received a good response from education providers and visited 15 primary schools and 10 kindergartens on Monday to drop off the booklets.

"There is one for each family and I'm hoping the parents will read it every six months or just have it handy. "I wanted to include everyone from high decile to low decile schools."

The booklet includes pictures and directions on how to deal with common first aid issues including spider bites, burns, bleeding and choking.

"I want to continue it next year, with the blessing of the schools," he said.