About Volley

That’s a nick name for volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Medical Service workers. Its one of the nicer ones. Squirrel, tick are a few of the more derogatory. Regardless, I am proud to be a tick, squirrel or volley. I have been since I was 14. The majority of the emergency medical and fire protection provided to the citizens of this country are provided by volunteers. That dosn’t detract from the excellent work of the legions of paid fire and EMS professionals, but rather sets the stage for the stories that follow. Volunteers respond for most people in this country when they dial 911, and most people don’t know that. The majority of people providing protection to your families are just average neighbors who do so without compensation.

It seems that fewer and fewer people are volunteering. It seems this country is losing its volunteer spirit, and more people are asking what’s in it for me rather than asking how can I help. So part of the motivation for writing these accounts down is to document the amazing things ordinary citizens are doing to help strangers, and sometimes neighbors we know, under what at times can be very difficult circumstances. It’s also to show that EMS is not all blood, gore and vomit, nor is it all about saving lives. In fact all of these things are more rare than common. Yes we see blood and vomit, but that’s not in the majority of patients. I say this because the reality of EMS has often been portrayed as every run is a lifesaving run, and every patient bleeds or pukes. That’s just not the case. I once heard a speaker at an EMS conference say EMS is 90 percent boredom, 10 percent terror and in my experience, those statistics are spot on. I think everyone in EMS has heard time and again “I could never do what you do.” And the fact is that yes, you can. You just have to want to. Hopefully these stories will show that you could “do what we do” and may inspire some more people to volunteer. I don’t know what the draw of EMS was from such an early age. My parents were not involved. In fact they weren’t happy that I was. My great uncles were firefighters, but I wasn’t surrounded by fire and EMS. If anything I was discouraged. But still as soon as I was 14, I joined the local emergency squad. My involvement has waxed and waned over the last 30 years, and I have served as both a paid and volunteer provider. The incidents I respond to still continue to teach me significant lessons about life when I let them. These are just my stories. Every EMS worker out there has tons. Some call them war stories, but I hope you will see as you read these accounts that these are more than stories of gore and heroism. They are more about people dealing with life, and other people brought to help in some way. This doesn’t set me apart from the hundreds of thousands of other volunteers out there serving their communities, and I am anything but an expert. In fact I can think of many who are more qualified than I to write this. But these are my stories. These are the ones that inspire and motivate me. It is my hope that this collection of stories will inspire more people to get involved, and become volleys. This is dedicated to the EMS providers across the country who selflessly provide care to others, and their families who often get left alone as we respond.