North Fork high schools, Southold Fire Department and the Texting Awareness Foundation are each receiving a $1,000 grant from the Allstate Foundation thanks to local EMT/firefighter Chris Manfredi.
Manfredi, a 27-year Allstate agent, volunteers with the fire department as well as with local schools. He volunteers to teach CPR at Mattituck, Southold and Greenport High Schools, where students are required by state mandate to get trained in hands-on-resuscitation. He also volunteers with the high schools’ drivers education departments, working with the Texting Awareness Foundation to help make students into safer drivers.
“It’s a very important cause to me,” Manfredi said. “Car accidents are the number one killer of this age group. Sixteen young kids die in car accidents a day. We want to do everything we can to make sure they’re safe drivers.”
Manfredi’s efforts have earned the not-for-profits he’s affiliated with each a Good Hands in Community Grant, a $1,000 cheque from the Allstate Foundation that the organizations can do whatever they want with. He says it’s been about 10 years since he’s started volunteering and earning these grants, and he doesn’t plan to stop any time soon. Manfredi will be at Southold High School this week, teaching CPR to students grades 7-12.
“I’ve lived here for 20-something years,” Manfredi explained. “And I just feel so blessed to live and work in this community that I feel like I owe it to them to give back.”
