EMS Appreciation Week: Trying to balance work and leisure

DALEVILLE, Ala. (WTVY) - In honor of EMS Week, businesses throughout the Wiregrass are showing extra appreciation.

Southeast Community Training Center of Daleville welcomed surrounding EMS teams for lunch Thursday afternoon.

First responders of all kinds came out and showed off their equipment to visitors.

“The EMS system is just that, it’s a system,” said Sean Gibson, executive director of Southeast Alabama EMS. “It’s made up of law enforcement, the fire department, city and county dispatch centers, and the emergency room. All of these are the components that come together to make to make this system.”

Though it was a time for relaxing, the work of EMS doesn’t stop.

Two different units were called to a scene, cutting their celebration short.

“Every time, day or night, you never know when the call is going to be so we’re ready to go at any time,” said Arnold Woodham with Enterprise Rescue “That was just a prime example. They were there to have lunch with fellow EMS workers and didn’t even get to have lunch, so duty calls.”

Luckily for the EMS teams, all were welcomed back to SECTC when they finished their call.

Gibson says, due to the fast-changing work environment of EMS workers, it’s best to show your appreciation whenever you can.

“Thank those that are out there because of the work volume and staffing,” said Gibson. “We’re all, post covid, very similar to the hospital staffing issues. EMS is dealing with the same things, but these women and men that make up this system, they’re out there day in and day out.”

National EMS week was established in 1974 by former President Gerald Ford.

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