DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Atlantic Community High School football players received free CPR classes and certifications from the Delray Beach Fire Rescue Department on Friday in the wake of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin's collapse.
"Just to bring awareness to our student-athletes on campus," football coach Jamelle Muray said. "It's very important, very imperative, because situations, such as Damar Hamlin, that occur in our situation all around us, we'll be able to be prepared and act as fast as we can."
After seeing Hamlin collapse, Muray thought it would be beneficial for all of his players to learn how to perform CPR. Atlantic is a Title I school, so it was searching for donors to pay for the certification.
That's when the Delray Beach police chief stepped in and said he would get the Delray Beach fire chief to teach the course. Delray Beach Fire Rescue said it would provide the service for free and get the kids their certification cards as well.
While the football players were boxing at a gym, a chance meeting with Hamlin's teammate, offensive tackle Dion Dawkins, led to him speaking with Muray and his players.
"I think, honestly, every human needs to learn this," Dawkins said. "It's really not a hard thing to learn, it's really easy to learn and when you have that knowledge, you'll just feel a little more safer."
Dawkins said he didn't know CPR before the Hamlin scare. He said you never know when it'll be your time to step up.
"You don't want to be in a situation where something happens and everybody is looking around, like, what do we do?" Dawkins said. "Why not it be you? Why not you take that step of getting that knowledge of learning CPR and learning the right way to save a life?"