Staying safe and having your drink, too

First-aid kit idea gets chilly reception

A suggestion by the Coms Guild for pubcrawl first-aid kits was met with a frosty reaction by Concordia Health Services, seemingly because of the event’s relation to alcohol.

Coms Guild Vice President Michele Burchiani came up with the idea after suffering a minor cut at an earlier event. “It was nothing big – [but] there wasn’t any means to treat it right away.”

After consulting with his fellow executives, he decided to approach Health Services with the idea of ‘mini first-aid kits’ that he said would contain things like Band-Aids, antiseptics, alcohol swabs and Q-tips and would be carried around on outings by team leaders.

Burchiani says Health Services representatives met his idea with apprehensiveness which only increased as his explanations continued. Intuiting the stumbling block, he asked and was told that Health Services does not associate itself with alcohol-related events. This surprised him somewhat, as he believed preventative measures were part of their mandate, and part of the reason he approached them. The other reason was as a way of spreading the costs.

“We thought we’d approach Concordia and see if they could help us out,” he said. “I explained to [them] that at events there’s the possibility of small injuries—not that they happen often. Just in case, we would like to be prepared.”

When approached, representatives from Health Services declined to comment. University Spokesperson Chris Mota stated that she was not aware of the incident but confirmed Health Services discourages events related to alcohol. Mota likewise stressed that there was no exclusionary policy in place that would deter Health Services from offering first aid kits.

She said Concordia has always supported activity initiatives from its student body by providing security and safety, and said the main impediments were the logistics of providing for off-campus activities.

“For events on campus we do what we can — but can [supplies] actually be supplied to anybody who’s having an event? They can’t,” Mota said.

Burchiani did not provide an estimate of how much the measure would have cost if covered by Coms Guild alone. He also says the matter has not been pursued after his first meeting with Health Services representatives.

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