Volunteer Voices: Harnett, who answered 126 calls in 2018, named EMS Person of the Year
Dave Harnett is EMS Person of the Year.
In January, the Helderberg Ambulance squad had 39 calls with 23 transports, and two turnovers; 61 percent of these calls were Basic Life Support transports and 39 percent were with Advanced Life Support.
On Feb. 2, Maple on the Lake held ice races and Helderberg Ambulance was on standby at the lake. Thank you to Gerry Cross and Tom McQuade for standing by at the races and Krista Safford and Ray Schimmer who were available for calls in the towns.
Thank you to Sharon Humes who took blood pressures at the Senior Center on Feb. 9.
Congratulations to Ray Schimmer who has been made crew chief.
On April 27 and 28, Helderberg Ambulance will be hosting a Prehospital Trauma Life Support class for any emergency medical technician from the neighboring squads.
The next drill is scheduled for March 7 and we will meet at the Berne-Knox-Westerlo High School cafeteria. Deputy Bray will conduct a walkthrough of the schools. This will help the squad members when we receive a call at the school.
On Feb. 24, the squad held its annual banquet at the Shell Inn in Rensselaerville. Thank you to Sharon Humes, Carrie Murray, and Jerry O’Malley for organizing the banquet. Thank you also to the staff at the Shell Inn for a delicious meal.
Supervisor Sean Lyons of Berne and Supervisor Vas Lefkaditis installed the officers. The line officers are: Captain Dave Tiffany, Lieutenant Tom McQuade, and Lieutenant Krista Safford.
The executive officers: President Alan Zuk, Vice President Randy Bashwinger, Treasurer Cynthia Johnson, Secretary Millie Zuk, and Quartermaster Deb Flagler.
Albert Raymond was named to the board of directors.
Service pins were given to PJ Stempel for five years, Robin Biorn for five years, Cynthia Johnson for 15 years, Dave Tiffany for 20 years, and Dave Harnett for 40 years.
Dave Harnett was nominated as EMS Person of the Year. Dave is a past board of directors member, chairman of the ambulance committee, in charge of ambulance maintenance, oxygen coordinator, and responded to 126 calls in 2018. Congratulations, Dave, for a well-deserved award.
This past year, 2018, the top responders were Gerry Cross with 143, Dave Harnett with 126, Tom McQuade with 94, Dave Tiffany with 76, Ray Schimmer and George Gebe with 63 each, Millie Zuk with 62, Bill Callahan with 56, and Mary O’Hanlon with 54.