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REACHING MORE THAN 9,800 HOMES
VOL LXVI • NO 27
A Faith-Filled Journey to 100
Lancaster CPR Trains People To Save Lives
BY CAT SHANNON
BY JEFF FALK
A
sk Lester Martin his secret for living to be 100 years old, and you won’t get an answer like “eating well,” “staying active” or “having good luck.” “Luck has nothing to do with it!” Lester said. “The fact that God is with me is what has kept me going. God has inspired me and given me direction lots of times. That’s how I got to be 100!” L ester marked his centur y birthday with a party on Saturday, July 26, at Mount Joy Country Homes, where he has resided since 2009. More than 120 people were in attendance, including family members and friends who had traveled from as far away as California and Texas to celebrate. Lester had insisted on no gifts, but his son Lyle crafted a box with a picture of the family’s homestead on it and collected 100 cards. In a unique way to mark the occasion, Lester’s daughter Wanda held up a sign that read “2025” before removing the first 2 on the sign and adding a decimal point. She challenged the room to decipher the significance of the new sign, now reading “0.025,” in relation to Lester. Wanda then revealed the answer: only 2.5% of people in the United States live to be 100, and Lester is now a member of that special club. Lester was born on July 27, 1925, and raised in a home that his parents, Emerson and Faye Martin, built on his grandfather’s farm in Clarence Center, N.Y. He was the oldest of six sons and four daughters. “One of the first things God did for me was to introduce me to
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real “feather in my cap,” as Lester described in his memoir “My God and I,” which was distributed to family members and friends in 2024. Lester and Martha married in 1947 when he was 22 years old. Together, they raised four children - two boys, Dick and Lyle, and two girls, Sandy and Wanda. Lester has eight grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. After only two years of living in the custom home Lester built for Martha and himself to live out
Knowing cardiopulmonar y resuscitation (CPR) is kind of like having insurance. You hope you never have to use it, but there’s a peace of mind associated with knowing it’s there if you ever do. The act of CPR is also one of the highest forms of respect and empathy that one human being can display for another. “Because the investment of time and energy that it takes to learn it is very small, everyone should know it,” said Ken Brennan, an emergency medical technician (EMT), a CPR and first aid instructor and the owner of Lancaster CPR. “Everyone knows someone who’s going to need CPR. I think a lot of people feel if they need 911, they’re going to get help in seconds. But that’s not true. If a patient doesn’t survive long enough, emergency medical services can’t do their job.” Located at 1248 W. Main St., Suite L-1, Ephrata, Lancaster CPR offers instruction in the life-changing and life-altering practices of advanced cardiac support, pediatric advanced life support, first aid and CPR. In association with the American Heart Association, Lancaster CPR primarily trains health care professionals, but it also offers instruction to groups, churches, businesses, organizations and individuals. “We predominantly provide the training that health care workers need to do their jobs,” said Ken. “ They need to be recertified ever y two years. Obviously, if you work in health care, the odds are much higher that you’re going to use it.
See 100 pg 5
See CPR pg 3
Lester Martin (front) with his children (back, from left) Richard, Sandy, Lyle and Wanda
my wife, Martha. She became my everything. Through her I got to know a builder. He was looking for some good Christian men to form a gang to build houses,” Lester recalled, noting that the builder had hundreds of small houses to construct. “He took me on and introduced me to building, and I put everything I had into it.” Lester went on to start his own business, L.L. Martin Builders Inc. One of the custom homes he built was featured in an edition of “Builder Magazine,” which was a
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