by KIMBERLY DONNELLY

Weston Volunteer Emergency Medical Services (WVEMS) honored several individual members at its annual dinner held in June.

Plaques for individual honors were presented to three of the department’s 45 members. Beth Low and J.T. Sollazzo shared honors for EMT of the Year, and Jeff Kendall received the Dave Geismar Community Service Award.

John Weingarten, director of WVEMS, said after reviewing the list of recommendations from the crew chiefs, Ms. Low and Mr. Sollazzo were chosen unanimously by the EMS Executive Committee to be this year’s co-recipients of the EMT of the Year award. This is the first time in the department’s history the honor has been shared by more than one person.

But, Mr. Weingarten said, the service of these two volunteers “jumped out” at the committee, and there was really no question they were both deserving of the honor.

Tom Cook, a member of the department who is in charge, among other things, of publicity and fund raising, said the EMT of the Year is usually awarded to the person who has been most active over the past year in terms of the number of calls responded to. Ms. Low and Mr. Sollazzo, both of whom were in the same training class and have only been members of WVEMS for about a year and a half, each responded to more than 200 calls out of a total of about 500.

“They both really dug in — they’re tenacious,” Mr. Cook said.

Mr. Weingarten agreed. “They’ve been amazing,” he said. Most of the calls were ones they responded to when they were not even on duty, and many of them were difficult and complicated situations, he added.

Besides volunteering for WVEMS, Ms. Low is married and is raising two children. Mr. Sollazzo is also married with children and he owns and operates A Touch of Class deli in Norwalk.

Community service award

The Dave Geismar Community Service Award is named in honor of one of WVEMS’s founding members. Mr. Geismar was on the squad for 37 years — right up until his death a few years ago.

Mr. Cook described Mr. Geismar as “the workhorse of the squad.” He typically responded to more than one-third of all calls to WVEMS. “He was really the rock of the organization. Given his tenure, dedication, the volume of calls he responded to, and the length of his service, and the fact that he gave so much back to the community, we created the Dave Geismar Community Service Award,” Mr. Cook said.

This year’s recipient, Mr. Kendall, is exactly the kind of EMT the award is meant to acknowledge, Mr. Weingarten said. “Mr. Kendall is an exemplary EMT, someone who goes far and above what is expected,” he said.

Mr. Kendall, who is a senior executive in the Internet firm Web Loyalty in Norwalk, was responsible for creating the department’s Web site, and he has revamped and maintains the fire department’s site as well. “He gave us a wonderful tool to allow us to better interact with the community,” Mr. Weingarten said.

Mr. Kendall is, in effect, the department’s IT specialist. In addition to normal crew chief duties, he also developed an online scheduling system that allows WVEMS to do short-term scheduling. He has researched and is implementing many software programs that will help the department better serve the community.

Mr. Kendall is also in charge of all the technical aspects of the department’s new mobile emergency digital information center (MEDIC), an on-board computer system that will include GPS (global positioning system), emergency call response information, patient history, treatment protocols, drug directories, patient data reports for the hospital, HazMat guidelines, floor plans and maps of Weston’s schools and playing fields, and more.

WVEMS was founded in 1964 to serve Weston residents and their families.

WVEMS is an all volunteer organization and all its members are certified by the State of Connecticut Department of Public Health. Weston EMS does not charge members of the community for its services.

Those interested in volunteering, making a contribution, or obtaining more information about WVEMS may call 222-2649 of visit www.westonems.com.

 

© Copyright 2006 by Hersam Acorn newspapers