Two members of Bradford Community Church’s SOS crew have more than lived up to the name when they helped save the life of a local woman recently.
During the church’s annual end of summer celebration, on Thursday, Aug. 22, largely run by the church’s Summer of Service (SOS) youth group, Pastor Cory Kostyra called up Cassandra Gauthier and Kiera Mengers, both 18, to praise their efforts the week prior in helping save Leni Vander Kooij, who had suffered an unexpected allergic reaction and gone into anaphylactic shock.
“I was really proud of them,” Kostyra said before presenting the pair with a set of awards and certificates of recognition. “When a life was on the line, there was no hesitation; they just acted.”
The pastor explained that both have been part of the church community for “quite a number of years,” over which he’s watched them grow up and work through some tough challenges while helping the community.
Mayor James Leduc also thanked the pair on behalf of the town and said he was proud to see all the “amazing” work the group does around the community.
“It just shows what this program is doing and how it taught these young people to take action and make sure that we had the right people to save a life,” he said.
Along with other members of the group, Gauthier and Mengers were participating in a weekly team building meeting that happened to be at the Vander Kooij’s residence on Aug. 14, when Leni was stung by some sort of wasp.
Having been stung before, including this spring, Leni explained to BradfordToday that she’s never had a similar reaction, and as such wasn’t prepared for one.
“We are just very thankful that the kids were here, that they were attentive and that they got the situation remedied by finding an EpiPen,” she said on behalf of herself and husband Peter.
Luckily, the swelling has since gone down, Leni is feeling “great” and now owns a couple of the pens — just in case.
“Doctors later confirmed at the hospital that had that EpiPen not been given, she would not be with us today,” Kostyra said.
At the time of the incident, the two SOS members said Leni seemed alright and intended to take an antihistamine just in case. A short time later, Peter came into the home to check on her, after which he yelled for someone to call 911 and asked if anyone had an EpiPen.
Gauthier and Mengers, who had been inside the house preparing dinner, both sprinted out over the rural property — Mengers in search of her brother’s bag, as he was the only one in the group with an EpiPen, and Gauthier in search of the pastor to help administer it.
Upon locating the EpiPen, Mengers said she felt a combination of stress and relief, knowing she had the tool to help, but also knowing it had to be administered correctly.
Out of breath from sprinting all the way back to the house, the pair turned the pen over to the pastor before being asked to wait outside for the paramedics.
“We could hear the clunk of the EpiPen which is a little scary,” Gauthier said.
The pair directed paramedics into the home about 10 minutes later, followed shortly thereafter by firefighters. Leni was then taken to hospital.
Calm after the storm
Afterwards, the pair returned to help with the team building and kept quiet about the incident to avoid causing a panic.
At that point, “it’s in the doctor’s and God’s hands, so I just pray she’s OK,” Gauthier explained.
“You’ve done what you can, so let it be,” Mengers added.
It wasn’t until the following day that the pair received the good news that Leni would be OK, and both said they hadn’t experienced anything like that situation before.
Gauthier said her father has an allergy to shellfish, but the family is always very careful about it, and while Mengers said she’s completed first aid training and heard about the dangers of allergic reactions, it’s “completely different,” to confront one in real life.
“It’s no longer about the training; it’s about instinct,” she said.
Neither said they had any idea they would be receiving awards, and both felt they didn’t deserve them.
“It was just doing what we had to do,” Gauthier said.
“It was just a natural obligation. I never thought of it as saving a life, it was just, ‘Let me help you,’” Mengers added.
Send off to summer
The end of summer celebration at the church is way to welcome the community with a free barbecue, snacks, music and fun games, according to Allison Kalist, director of the SOS crew.
“After a whole summer of going out to the community it’s a nice way for us to say, ‘we came out here to help you you, now come to us so we can keep serving you,’” she said.
While the Canada Summer Jobs program helped the church pay for seven members ages 15 to 30, the church also raised funds to help cover the roughly $45,000 cost to hire another nine, in addition to having help from about 10 volunteers aged 12 to 14.
Those fundraising efforts continued at the celebration, which also included the sale of church apparel, a bake sale and bake auction. One high bidder even won the opportunity to pie the pastor, all in good fun.
Intended to be a lively wrap to the SOS season, Kalist said it’s also a good chance to update people on what’s happening at the church and spread Jesus’s love.
This marked the completion of the fourth year of the eight-week SOS program in which participants plan, prepare and implement community-service projects of their choosing.
In the past, those have included helping people experiencing homelessness, helping at retirement homes, picking up garbage and publicly performing music.
For more information about the program, visit bradfordcommunitychurch.com or call 905-775-9268.
