This Week in EMS: A Recap for May 19 - 25, 2007
EMS Week activities have been the top focus on EMSResponder.com this week.
It's not every day that rescuers are thanked for what they do, and as many EMS services have discovered, there is value in taking the time to recognize and appreciate their personnel each year.
EMSResponder.com asked for submissions from participating organizations, and profiled a few of our favorite responses.
Visit the article to read about some very creative and touching ways to approach this annual event. Ideas included the donation of used equipment to other services, recognizing local EMS pioneers, retiring the numbers of past EMS personnel, as well as parades and awards. Among the most unique activities was a demonstration in which professional mascots took part in a condensed Emergency Vehicle Advanced Driver Education (EVADE) course.
To read more and see photos, visit Ambulance Companies Celebrate EMS Week.
Also this week on EMSResponder.com, we have tracked the two teams of bicyclists riding hundreds of miles toward Roanoke, Virginia to attend the National EMS Memorial.
These riders with the National EMS Memorial Bike Ride called EMSResponder.com with dispatches from the road, and one of the groups met with senior website writer Susan Nicol Kyle during a stop in Maryland.
To read the initial article and hear the first podcasts, visit Memorial Ride Kicks Off EMS Week.
For the interviews from Maryland and updated podcasts, visit EMS Memorial Bike Riders Push Toward Virginia.
Additional coverage will follow after the riders complete their week-long journey and meet in Roanoke. Look for more on this, as well as memorial coverage, upcoming on EMSResponder.com.
In another EMS Week feature, we interviewed organizers of the The National EMS Museum Foundation's Virtual Museum, which officially launched this week.
This website will be a "can't-miss" for anyone involved or interested in EMS. The effort began less than one year ago and has been carried out entirely by a core group of volunteers, with the help of enthusiastic contributors all around the country.
The museum is open to everyone who wants to participate. The organizers emphasize that they want to keep people involved, and that "This is everybody's museum."
The museum's online launch completes Phase 1 of the project, and the foundation is excitedly working toward Phase 2, in which they will help organize traveling displays at shows and conferences. Eventually the foundation will move on to Phase 3 of the project, in which they will create a permanent location for the museum and its collections.
To read more about this EMS community effort, visit National Online EMS Museum Celebrates Grand Opening.
Reminders:
Next Tuesday, May 29 is the deadline for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's 2007 Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program (CEDAP). For more information visit Application Period Opens for DHS's 2007 CEDAP Grants.
Awards
Nominations are being accepted for EMS Magazine's 22nd Annual EMT/Paramedic of the Year Award, sponsored by Braun Industries and ZOLL Medical Corporation. Nominations must be received by July 2, 2007. For full contest rules and instructions please visit www.emsresponder.com/paramedic.
EMS Magazine is also accepting nominations for the 2007 EMS Magazine/National Association of EMTs Gold Service Award. For contest rules and to submit nominations, go to www.emsresponder.com/goldaward. Nominations must be received by August 1, 2007.
Other top headlines this week on EMSResponder.com:
