2.11.24
Yesterday was a glorious day. The sun was shining and there was a warmth in the air that almost beckoned you to sit outside on the front porch, albeit still bundled up as the breeze was a tad chilly. Darrell and I have been pretty much housebound this past week after coming down with a nasty dose of cold. First Darrell succumbed to it on Monday, and I quickly followed a day later. Not nearly as affected as Darrell, I was still quite able to do morning chores although Heidi’s calf gained an extra few pounds by having all her mum’s milk to herself on more than one occasion this week!
Yesterday was also a perfect day weatherwise for a local couple, Brad and Julie Smith, to hold one of their shotgun shoots which are so well attended by folks from near and far. The Smith’s decided this particular event would be held as a fundraiser for the Monument Volunteer Ambulance Association as our goal this year is to purchase a much-needed Stryker Stair Chair. This device allows the safe transfer of a patient down a flight of stairs when maneuvering a gurney is not feasible or could present a danger to patient and EMT alike! However, as with all medical equipment, these devices are costly. While not so much a problem for large ambulance agencies, coming up with the near $5,000.00 for a new Stryker stair chair is challenging for a little agency such as ours, hence our fundraising efforts.
Those of us on the ambulance crew spent Friday baking all manner of sweet treats and desserts that would be auctioned off during the event. Local folks jumped in to add their favourite desserts to the auction table and many more showed up to generously bid on the pies, cakes, biscuits and tarts or just to drop a donation in our jar to help our cause. By the end of the day, Carrie and Julie, two of our ambulance crew that manned the auction table at the shoot, were thrilled to let the rest of us know that we were now $3000.00 closer to our goal! Absolutely amazing! This just shows what a truly supportive and generous community we live in and how much folks appreciate what we volunteers do.
For yes, we are all volunteers. The other day I was talking to Carrie, and it dawned on us that we have been volunteering on the Monument ambulance for 26 years now. Both of us, along with several other local folks, started our EMT Basic class together nigh on 27 years ago. At one time we had a crew of 13 volunteers on the ambulance, but family commitments, folks moving out of the area and other unforeseen causes have whittled our crew down to 5. A year after I became an EMT-Basic, I took the step to become an EMT-Intermediate, the level just below a paramedic. Becoming an EMT instructor soon followed and saw me teaching classes to other folks whose goal was to volunteer in order to serve their little village communities. One thing led to another, and I before I knew it, and with encouragement from dear friend Donna Wilson – an amazing paramedic and instructor with the state of Oregon – I was invited to sit on EMS boards and committees to share what it was like to be an EMT in frontier Oregon.
As someone who loves to teach, over the years I have had the privilege to share my passion with many folks who still serve as volunteer EMT’s to this day. I think it truly has to be in your blood to be a volunteer EMT, or any type of volunteer for that matter. Look at those who join our military service, all volunteers each and every one of them, bless their hearts! Yet we must never forget that for every volunteer out there, there is a wonderful support team behind them… their family. Looking back over the past years as a volunteer EMT, I feel so blessed. I absolutely could not have done what I have done, accomplished what I have without the staunch support of my dearest Darrell. How many nights has he woken up to the sound of my pager going off, laying anxiously in bed waiting for me to return home, hoping I myself have not had an accident on the way to or from the call? Wrapping his warm arms about me when I eventually return half frozen to bed. Waving bye-bye in the evening as I head off to begin teaching yet another EMT class, knowing he will be a bachelor two nights a week for the next 5 months. No, I could not have done any of this without his encouragement and love.
Often it is the volunteers who are given the occasional pat on the back in recognition for what they do, but there are those who deserve that recognition more than us. They are our family and loved ones. Sometimes we forget that unassuming bulwark of support behind us. We occasionally take for granted their understanding of our passion for helping others. I am sure a part of them after so many years would love to see us turn that pager off for the last and final time. Yet they would never ask us to do such a thing. Maybe they really do understand. Yes, they are the ones who deserve the pat on the back, the recognition for their sacrifices over the years. They are volunteers too, conscripted ones maybe, but volunteers regardless. They are the true heroes.