May 16 kicked off EMS Week. This year’s theme was “This is EMS: Caring for Our Communities.” This theme is incredibly fitting as the members of Suffield Volunteer Ambulance Association have risen to the call over the last year. At this time last year, we were two months into a world-wide pandemic unlike anything we have ever seen in many of our lifetimes. We were faced with an incredible number of unknowns and many unanswered questions that absolutely struck fear and doubt and added to the stress in many of our lives.
Despite the unknowns, the volunteers put on their uniforms and showed up, ready to serve the community. Since the start of the pandemic, the volunteers in this organization have given close to 25,500 hours of their time, serving the community, actively riding shifts despite knowing the risks and facing countless exposures. These hours do not account for the hundreds more spent training or engaged in other activities on behalf of the Association. We celebrate not only our perseverance throughout this pandemic, but we celebrate our individual providers, the team and the EMS system as a whole. I am proud to say I am a member of this team, and I look forward to many successes and triumphs this year as we continue to move forward.