The Foundation at West River Health Services has begun a new program to show our appreciation for eleven area town’s ambulance services. Not that we don’t all appreciate our area rural ambulance services, but that sometimes we all take them for granted. These ambulance volunteers drop what they’re doing at their jobs, hustle to the Ambulance Garage, quickly drive to the accident scene, make smart decisions during a very stressful time, and get the accident victims where they need to be. For nothing – except knowing that they’ve tried to help someone in need of their services.
In visiting with eleven area Ambulance Services Directors, the Foundation learned three things: That our rural ambulance services need 1) more funding, 2) younger volunteers and education for them, and 3) appreciation. This current program deals with #3 – showing our appreciation for the volunteers and staff that make ambulatory services happen daily. Eventually we hope to build a consortium or group of ambulance services in the area who work together toward needs #1 and #2 – more funding assistance and volunteer recruitment/education.
This “Appreciation for Ambulance Staff and Volunteers Program”, began by John DeArmond, Hettinger’s Ambulance Director, actually began as a celebration of National EMS (Ambulance) Week May 18-23. In visits with area ambulance leaders, we found that during this week, most of the area ambulance crews are out serving hotdogs in the park and educating students at the schools about 911 or EMS Services. Even during a week that commemorates them, they were still doing things for others (instead of the other way around).
So initially we thought we should host a banquet for all of the ambulance staffs and volunteers in the area. But since some rural ambulance services are so understaffed, they can’t even leave their communities or they won’t have ambulance service! So we thought maybe some of the larger services could cover the smaller ones, so we’d have two smaller banquets. However, the logistics of covering them, with farming and calving and other jobs did not make this very realistic. So instead we decided to have the entire program underwritten by area businesses, where they donated from $100-$500 each, so we could show our appreciation for the ambulance volunteers. And what has been the response? Overwhelmingly positive – with over 35 sponsors and still more coming in daily. The program is 100% transparent, as all funds coming into the Foundation are tax-deductible and earmarked for the EMS Week Fund. Therefore, if we have more funds than we need for this year’s program, we will have them available for next year. No funds donated will be spent anywhere else, except for appreciation of our area ambulance staffs and volunteers during National EMS Week.
And how are we showing our appreciation for these volunteers? During National EMS (Ambulance) Week we are giving our ambulance leaders the following gifts to present to their staff and volunteers:
1) A $20 gift certificate for a meal at their local restaurant (on their time!)
2) An EMS STRONG t-shirt (We got all their sizes from their leaders!)
3) An EMS STRONG coffee mug (To keep them awake on those long drives!)
Plus, if so desired, we will supply 911 coloring books and 911 lollipops for the younger school kids after ambulance services presentations in the schools. In addition we will be creating newspaper and radio advertising to promote what our ambulance services do in their local communities and how we should not take them for granted.
Overall, we know that our volunteer ambulance personnel would rather not be shown any appreciation – but we think it’s important that we do this – so our current, amazing volunteers continue doing such a terrific job. Plus, we’d like to develop stronger relationships among our area citizens for the overall betterment of rural America.
In our eleven area towns – Hettinger, Reeder, Scranton, Bowman, Mott, Regent, New England, Lemmon, Bison, McIntosh, and Buffalo – we have 163 ambulance staff and volunteers. All of them should and now will know they are appreciated.
Until next time, we have work to do.
By Ted Uecker, WRHS Fund Development Officer
05/13/2015
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Community Relations
West River Regional Medical Center
1000 Highway 12
Hettinger, ND 58639-7530