The Brockport Volunteer Ambulance Corps was honored recently by the Monroe-Livingston Regional EMS Council with its EMS Agency of the Year Award for 2014.
Brockport Ambulance President David Rice says this is the first time in the Corps’ 53 year history that it received the honor.
“We are very pleased and humbled to receive this most important award,” Rice tells the Suburban News/The Herald. “It embodies all of the hard work and dedication of every Corps member over the last five years as we separated from the village and rededicated ourselves as an independent, not-for-profit community-based ambulance service.”
The award is presented to an ambulance agency which strives for consistency in EMS excellence and exhibits exemplary performance when providing or supporting pre-hospital emergency care, Rice says.
Brockport Ambulance will now be considered for the New York State EMS Agency of the Year Award by the State Awards Committee of the NYS EMS Council.
The award was presented May 17 at Genesee Valley Park in Rochester during a picnic in conjunction with the kick-off of EMS Week. Rice says Rachel Barnhart of WROC-TV made the presentation and the award was accepted on behalf of the Corps by Chief Cody Dean, who was joined at the picnic by past Chief Jim Toole, Rice and Corps members Megan Murray and David and Nicholynn Harrel.
The focus of the Brockport Ambulance Corps remains providing quality and timely EMS to the residents of the greater Brockport community. The Ambulance Corps additionally provides support services such as blood pressure screenings and CPR training, which are often offered in conjunction with The Center at Brockport (formerly the Sweden Senior Center), Rice explains.
“2014 was by all accounts one of the finest years the Corps has had in many years,” he notes. “Call coverage continues to improve from prior years, and we covered over 90 percent of our calls during the last half of 2014. Volunteer involvement remains stable, although we are always looking for individuals who want to help us protect our community.”
Regarding the Towns of Sweden and Clarkson, Rice says Brockport Ambulance continues to update the towns on the Corps’ progress and continued desire to contract with them as their primary provider of EMS.
“We will be circulating petitions asking town residents to sign and show their support for a change in the town’s primary ambulance provider,” Rice adds. “We would be grateful if they could take a minute and complete that, or individually contact town officials to voice their desire for a change.”
