Leinster locals to benefit from new Community Trainer

The town of Leinster, in WA’s northern Goldfields region, now has its very own Aquatic Trainer to deliver aquatic and resuscitation courses to local residents.

Belinda Haldoupis, a town local, is now fully qualified as an Aquatic Trainer after Royal Life Saving WA Trainer Maureen Lasisz visited Leinster in January to deliver an Aquatic and Resuscitation Trainer course. Aquatic trainers deliver a variety of rescue and resuscitation programs to the community including the pinnacle lifesaving award, the Bronze Medallion. 

Belinda is now also able to teach the Heart Beat Club course, which is a resuscitation education session for parents and carers of young children, with a focus on CPR and first aid for common childhood injuries. As a mother to young children, Belinda was happy to learn these specialised skills herself.

“What I enjoyed the most was becoming more knowledgeable about water safety given I have three young children myself. Knowing I now have the information to potentially save a life, and the peace of mind and confidence that comes from updating my personal skills sets and abilities through opportunities like this.”

The Aquatic Trainer and Resuscitation course was made possible thanks to support from Royal Life Saving WA’s Principal Community Partner BHP, which provided the funding for Maureen to deliver the course and sign Belinda off as a qualified instructor. 

Belinda was thoroughly impressed with Maureen as her instructor, saying “If you have the chance to learn from Maureen, you won’t regret it. We would love to see her back in Leinster again one day! As an instructor and educator, the main thing that stood out about Maureen was her incredible knowledge on the subject matter. Her real-life experience superseded the text book program delivery and we were often blown away by her personal recounts of real life scenarios. 

“She was very thorough and realistic to our regional environment in her program delivery, and very encouraging and supportive of our personal efforts to succeed. Now that I have become a community trainer, I look forward to being able to deliver programs which will benefit our entire community.” 

Royal Life Saving WA is excited to work with Belinda as she delivers water rescue and resuscitation courses to the Leinster community. With BHP’s support we have also had the opportunity to purchase and send up some equipment and manikins for Belinda to get started with her courses, and we look forward to her becoming a great advocate of Royal Life Saving!