Today we’d like to introduce you to Bob Otter.
Hi Bob, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My background is in public safety. I spent more than 25 years as a Firefighter and EMT and the last half of my tenure as an incident commander. During all those years I was also in the pre-hospital medical equipment industry both on the manufacturing and the distribution sides, those two worlds collided in 2018 when I launched citizenAID. I guess it was 25 years of getting out of ambulances and fire engines at incident scenes and being met with panicked bystanders saying they wanted to help but didn’t know what to do. Those haunting voices coupled with the knowledge I had that so many lives could have been saved if the public had properly intervened with some simple steps put me on a mission of sorts. A mission to shift the paradigm and empower the public to assist in saving lives.
Shortly after citizenAID began operations in February of 2018, I was driving to a meeting when the news about the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida first broke. 17 innocent people lost their lives that day and I was nearly overwhelmed with a feeling of helplessness, not knowing how I was going to get citizenAID out to the world at a time when it was so desperately needed. During the coverage of the tragedy that day there was a radio ad for Bomba’s Socks that highlighted their buy one pair and they donate a pair model. I knew right then and there that we could do the same thing with our training and utilize the match to train US school teachers on how to save lives. Every time someone bought our training, we would train a teacher for free. What if every teacher at Marjory Stoneman had known what to do? What if every teacher in America knew what to do? How many lives could we save? Fast forward to today and citizenAID is now in 350 school districts, 7500 classrooms, and has donated training to over 30,000 teachers.
We are increasing that number of donations by establishing partnerships with businesses. They provide our online training to their employees and we allow them to train the same number of teachers in their local school districts. Just this week Hollywood Casino is providing training to 2000 teachers in Toledo and Columbus after they trained employees in just two of their properties. I have to smile when I think about the amount of good we can do as an organization as we continue to grow across the country.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I wouldn’t say the road has been smooth by any stretch but it has been very rewarding navigating it. No one wants to think they will ever be in a situation where their actions, or lack thereof, could mean someone lives or dies. We do know however that if a person sustains an injury and is bleeding uncontrollably from an artery. they have 4 minutes to live unless that bleeding is stopped. We also know that, even though people don’t want to imagine it, it’s a very real possibility that you could find yourself in a situation where you need to act. The circumstances could be linked to something as common as an auto accident or something not as common but as we are seeing, with horrifying regularity, an intentional act of violence. We know that patient care is delayed at these types of incidents and the only people who can make a difference in the outcomes of the injured are people who are already there. Getting this message out to the general public in an informative and compelling manner without instilling fear is a challenge. It is a difficult subject to discuss for most people and we are constantly aware of that in our efforts to inform the world of the work we are doing.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
citizenAID is an organization that educates, empowers, and equips the general public to help save the lives of seriously injured people before professional medical care arrives on the scene. We do this through a free cell phone app @citizenAIDUSA that is a life-safety guide and has been downloaded over 600,000 times across the globe. We also provide online training that is designed for the general public and taught by the county’s best subject matter experts. They only cost $14 for your whole family to take and with each training purchased we donate one to the teacher with a goal of training 1 million teachers on how to save lives in their classrooms and beyond for free! The last part of our program is public access trauma equipment with step-by-step instructions for the general public to use so they can save the life of someone who has been seriously injured. Think of it like an AED for trauma. Our citizenAID Wall Stations and Public Treatment Kits are in International Airports, Professional Sports Stadiums, Banks, Fast Food Restaurants, Office Buildings, Warehouses, and even in people’s cars, boats, and pocketbooks. As of June, we are also in the Halls of Congress. US Congressman Troy Balderson (OH-12) provided citizenAID Training to all of his staff and placed citizenAID equipment in all of his offices. We are a very small organization, that is quite litterally trying to save the world! The more people who take our training, buy a kit and follow us on social media, the more classrooms we can make safer with our program. You can find our online training and our public trauma kits on our website www.citizenaid.us.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
I enjoy reading about people who have faced extreme adversity and overcome it. Whether it be US soldiers who have fought protecting our freedom, someone who is battling a life threatening illness, or even an entrepreneur struggling to get their idea off the ground. We all have our challenges in life both personally and professionally. I love seeing the strength of fellow humans and using it as fuel to accomplish my own goals.
Pricing:
- citizenAID Smart Phone App – Free!
- citizenAID online training – Access for you and your whole family $14
- citizenAID Public Treatment Kit – $49.95
- citizenAID Wall Station with 2 Public Treatment Kits – $249
Contact Info:
- Website: www.citizenAID.us
- Instagram: @citizenAIDUSA
- Facebook: @citizenAIDUSA
- Twitter: @citizenAIDUSA
