Voorheesville students distribute Files of Life

If asked to name some life-saving devices, most people wouldn’t come up with “small plastic envelope.”
Nevertheless, a group of Voorheesville middle school and high school students recently spent a chunk of their weekend distributing plastic envelopes, called Files of Life, to every home in the town of New Scotland.

“We thought it was something really important that could help the community,” said Abby Belasen, a senior at Clayton A. Bouton High School.

Belasen is president of the high school’s Key Club, which helped distribute the Files of Life as part of a New Scotland town initiative to put them in every home. The middle school’s Builders Club also helped hand out the files.

So, just how can a File of Life save a person’s life?

Inside the envelopes are forms on which residents can list medical information, such as their doctor’s name, medications they may be taking, and allergies or other medical conditions they may have. After completing the forms, residents file them in the envelopes, which can then be attached to their refrigerator with a magnet on the back.

Emergency personnel know to look for the files when they see the special stickers on their front and back doors of a house. Once emergency personnel read the files, they have a better idea of how to treat the patient, and that can save a person’s life.

The Key Club and Builders Club are subdivisions of Kiwanis, an international organization dedicated to helping children, the homeless, and other disadvantaged people.

That dedication to help others is why the Key Club and Builders Club immediately agreed to help distribute the Files of Life, Belasen said.

“We are the service organization, that’s what we do,” she said.

Students in the Builders Club said they had a good time delivering the Files, even though one of them, Joe Becker, got chased by a dog.

Pictured in the Key Club photo above are (l-r) seniors Lizzie Dawson, treasurer, Amanda Belasen, vice president, Abby Belasen, president, Clara Fried, secretary, junior Meara McTegue, editor, and Sherry Burgoon, the club's faculty advisor.

Pictured in the Builders Club photo above are (l-r) Scott VanDerWende, treasurer, Joe Becker, secretary, Alex Singh, president, and Maeve Brennan, vice president, all seventh-graders. John Curran, the club's faculty advisor, is in the middle.