For being an everyday hero on many levels — from coming to a family’s aid during an emergency to impacting health education on a national level — University of Evansville nursing faculty member Jerrilee LaMar has been named a Red Cross Hero.

LaMar, assistant professor of nursing in the Dunigan Family Department of Nursing and Health Sciences, received the “Educator Hero” recognition. She was one of 12 people honored in the annual Heroes award program, which recognizes everyday heroes in the 33-county service area of the Evansville-Wabash Valley Region’s Red Cross chapter.

LaMar received the award Thursday, May 17, at a banquet at Casino Aztar in downtown Evansville.

“Jerrilee is an excellent educator,” said Amy Hall, chair of the Dunigan Family Department of Nursing and Health Sciences, in a video that was featured at the awards banquet. “She inspires students and others around her to go out of their way to do their best. She exemplifies that with her actions every day.”

Among LaMar’s heroic actions is her leadership of a nationwide study that has changed the way many colleges and universities teach CPR to their nursing students. The National League of Nursing issued a call for schools to apply for the study, and LaMar seized the opportunity, eager for the chance to make a difference in the quality of nursing education around the country.

The NLN chose 10 schools with associate, diploma, or baccalaureate nursing programs — including UE — and asked them to teach CPR to their students using one of two techniques. One group completed the training in a four-hour, instructor-led course; the other used a self-directed, computer-based course that included learning and practice on a voice advisory manikin.

After that training, all students were randomly assigned to either a control group with no further practice or to an experimental group, which practiced CPR six minutes each month for the 12 months of the study. LaMar led the collection and reporting of data for the dozens of UE students who participated.

The study found that the students who practiced for only six minutes each month either maintained or improved their skills over the duration of the study. The students who did not practice beyond their initial training had a significant loss of skills within as little as three months.

Under LaMar’s leadership, the study demonstrated the vital importance of ensuring that nursing students retain knowledge about CPR. The findings of the study have been incorporated into the curriculum at UE, where students have additional practice time during labs and still use the manikin from the study to practice their skills regularly. The study’s implications were so compelling that hospitals and health care providers, including St. Mary’s Health System in Evansville, have also adopted similar technology and training.

Beyond her significant role in the national study, LaMar lives what she teaches. She carries a pocket mask, even when traveling abroad, in case she encounters an emergency and needs to administer CPR. She offers free CPR classes to UE faculty members and consistently receives outstanding evaluations from her students, many of whom say they have been inspired to adopt healthier behaviors after taking her courses.

Perhaps LaMar’s most heroic moment came when she was walking into a nursing clinical at St. Mary’s early one morning. A passing driver rolled down her window and shouted, “I need help!” As several others ignored the driver, LaMar hurried to the car and realized that the driver’s husband was in cardiac arrest. She rushed the couple to the emergency room and sat with the woman as ER physicians worked to save her husband’s life.

“I believe all nurse educators are heroes every day. We’re always preparing people to take care of other people,” Hall said. “(Jerrilee) has taught a lot of people how to save the lives of others.”

The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation’s Even Start Program was notified recently it was the recipient of a $15,000 grant from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. The grant will be used to fund two staff members for childhood classrooms for children ages six weeks to three years. This is the third year the EVSC Even Start Program has received a grant from Dollar General and it was the only site in Indiana to receive a Family Literacy Grant from Dollar General this year.

“This grant and others like it are vital as they allow us to continue our mission to break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by improving educational opportunities for low income families,” said Emma Jean Couture, Even Start director. Federal Funding for the Even Start program has ended, but Couture said the need for service continues. “With this grant, we will be able to hire two additional teachers, allowing us to serve more children.”

The EVSC’s Even Start Program, which is entering its 16th year, focuses on children ages zero to three and their families and works to engage parents to help them develop skills necessary to help their children succeed. Not only are families taught nurturing skills, parents are taught how to help their children develop language and learning skills so they are prepared for school. In addition, Even Start assists parents in identifying development delays and connects families to services that are vital for these children to enter school on an “even start” with their peers.

The Department of Parks & Recreation will host a Public Meeting on Thursday, May 24th from 6:30pm – 8:00pm for the discussion of the future plans for the Pigeon Creek Greenway Passage – Riverside/Pollack Corridor. The meeting will be held at Fairlawn Elementary School, 2021 S. Alvord Blvd. United Consulting will gather information from residents and persons interested in the Greenway Passage.

The Riverside/Pollack Corridor is one of five different projects; the Department of Parks & Recreation is exploring to expand the Greenway Passage. The goal is to provide an extensive and connected series of bike lanes and multi-use trails to encircle the inner City and to connect with the Town of Newburgh by the Angel Mounds State Historical Site.

Excerpts:
“Everyone lies: it’s just a question of how, when and why. From the relationship saving “yes, you do look thin in those pants” to the improbable “your table will be ready in 5 minutes”, manipulating the truth is part of the human condition. Accept it now.”

” BS is usually defined as inventions made in ignorance of the facts, where the primary goal is to protect oneself. The aim of BS isn’t to harm another person, although that often happens collaterally. For a variety of reasons BS can be hard to detect, which is why I’m offering this missive as a crash B.S. in BS detection. But be warned: to keep you on your toes there are several bits of BS tucked inside this essay which you will have to find for yourself.”

“The first rule of BS is to expect it. Fire detectors are designed to expect a fire at any moment: they’re not optimists. They fixate on the possibility of fires and that’s why they save lives. If you want to detect BS you have to swallow some cynicism, and add some internal doubt to everything you hear. Socrates, the father of western wisdom, based his philosophy around the recognition, and expectation, of ignorance. It’s far more dangerous to assume people know what they’re talking about, than it is to assume they don’t and let them prove you wrong. Be like Socrates: assume people are unaware of their own ignorance (including yourself) and politely, warmly, probe to sort out the difference.”

“The first detection tool is a question: How do you know what you know?
Throw this phrase down when someone force feeds you an idea, an argument, a reference to a study or over-confidently suggests a course of action. People so rarely have their claims challenged, that asking someone to explain how they know sheds light on whatever ignorance they’re hiding. It instantly diminishes the force of a BS driven opinion.”

“The second tool is also a question: What is the counter argument? Anyone who has seriously considered something will have seen enough facts to fit their current argument as well as alternative position: ask for them. It’s a grade school assignment, intended to show there are many reasonable ways to interpret the same set of facts. However, someone who is bullshitting you won’t have researched or thought through anything: they’re making things up. Asking for the counter argument will force them to either back up their position, or to end the discussion until they’ve done due diligence.”

“A good thought holds together. Its solid conceptual mass maintains its shape no matter how much you poke, probe, test and examine. But BS is all surface. Like a magician’s bouquet of flowers, it’s pretty as it flashes past your eyes, but its absence of integrity become obvious when you hold it in your hands. Anyone creating BS knows this, and will tend towards urgency. They’ll resist reviews, breaks, consultations or the suggestion of sleeping on decisions before they’re made.”

“Be a leader in creating an environment unpleasant for BS. If everyone knows the gauntlet of friendly, but rigorous, intellectual curiosity claims must run through, BS will be discouraged while still in the minds of the tempted.”

“Especially in business and technology, jargon and obfuscation hide huge quantities of BS. Inflated language is a technique of intimidation. The bet is that if you don’t understand what they’re talking about, you’ll feel stupid, or distracted, and give in to the appearance of their superior knowledge. This is, of course, entirely bullshit. To withstand BS you have to have an inner core of self-reliance, holding on to your doubts longer than the BS’er holds onto their charade.”

” If a team of people witnesses the complete evisceration of someone’s BS few will attempt it again: they’ll know your world is a BS free zone. Great teams and families help each other detect bullshit, both in others and themselves, as sometimes the real BS we need to fear is our own.”

Link to article:

How To Detect Bullshit

In a letter addressed to the attorney for the Office of the Mayor of Evansville and distributed to the entire Evansville City Council, Scott Schutte of the Chicago law firm of Morgan Lewis, opines that the City of Evansville has still not provided written notice of default to Earthcare Energy. He furthermore asserts that the contract between the City of Evansville and Earthcare provides Earthcare with a 30 day period to cure any deficiencies that are stated by the City in writing.

Schutte goes on to scold Mr. Ziemer for allowing Mayor Winnecke to publish the op-ed letter that was published in the Community Comment section of the Courier Press on Sunday May 20, 2012 and states that the Mayor’s letter makes “legal and factual misstatements”. Schutte continues that the Mayor’s column was “legally baseless, shockingly cynical”, and that the Mayor’s assertion that an exclusive license was required per the contract is “inexplicable”.

The City County Observer makes the letter available to our readers on the following link without bias, edit, or opinion.

Link to Letter from Earthcare Attorney to Ted Ziemer

Letter from Earthcare Lawyer to Ziemer 05212012