A freak accident during his junior year at Colgate changed the trajectory of Mitch Cynamon’s life — but he wasn’t the one who sustained the injury.
A friend had fallen on a beer bottle at a party, slicing tendons and puncturing an artery. Amid the bloody scene, Cynamon ’01 stayed calm and acted fast, summoning an ambulance and helping his friend get care that, as doctors later told him, likely saved his life.
It was a moment that underscored the “be prepared” credo instilled in Cynamon by his father, a former EMT and the owner of a safety equipment business. Years earlier, when his uncle had a seizure at a family event, Cynamon remembers his dad taking control of the situation — and expecting his then-teenage son to step up too.
“I froze up at first,” he says. “But my dad’s reaction and [his ability] to manage a crisis stayed with me.”
Together, the experiences inspired Cynamon to pursue EMT training after college while starting his career in the hospitality world. He went on to spend nearly a decade working in purchasing and operations for some of New York City’s top restaurants while moonlighting as a CPR instructor, training everyone from restaurant employees to anxious new parents.
“I like helping people,” he says. “Even with my hospitality jobs, that’s always been the throughline for me.”
By 2006 he had made safety his full-time job when he founded Initiate Care, a safety education firm that provides CPR and first-aid training with a focus on accessibility and flexibility. Originally designed to serve hospitality workers, the New York City–based company offers on-demand instruction tailored to busy people and organizations. One memorable early session: a late-night, in-home training for a young lawyer and his friends, complete with wine and snacks.
“People are used to the old-school model — three hours, a manual, and no real-world context,” he says. “We try to make it a little more entertaining.”
As demand for his trainings grew, Cynamon began to see broader gaps in how lifesaving skills were taught — and who had access to them. In response he launched Safety Saints, a nonprofit spinoff of Initiate Care, during the pandemic. Its mission: to bring CPR and first-aid education to underserved communities through flexible training tailored to each community’s needs.
“A lot of people use emergency services as their main doctor’s office,” Cynamon says. “That’s the population we’re trying to reach.”
Today Safety Saints offers training across eight states and reaches nearly 3,000 people a year. The sessions range from CPR and first aid to food safety and workforce development.
Because Safety Saints focuses on serving vulnerable populations, it operates in places where ambulance response times are long, health care access is limited, and safety education is often out of reach. “It’s like food deserts,” Cynamon says. “These are education deserts. We want to fill that gap.” Through community partnerships, Safety Saints offers free trainings to families, caregivers, and kids who might otherwise never learn how to respond in an emergency.
What sets Safety Saints apart isn’t just the reach, says Cynamon — it’s also the delivery. Whether teaching young parents in their living rooms or restaurant staff after closing time, Cynamon hopes to bring humor and empathy to every session — along with a real-world understanding of how people react under pressure.
“The idea isn’t necessarily that you’d save the day,” he says. “But the hope is that if something happens, you at least have some education. You’d know whether it’s an ambulance moment or not. You’d know little things to help move the situation forward. That alone can change the outcome.”
His belief in the power of preparation — and its potential to save lives — is part of what keeps Cynamon going. “Making lifesaving training available to everyone who needs it — that’s the goal,” he says. “It’s ambitious, but I’ve got some time. I’m going to figure it out.”
