Every year, Shaler Hampton EMS holds a joint board of directors and staff meeting during which they go over the state of the organization and encourage interaction between the staff and directors.
The May 10 meeting was interrupted when representatives of the Pennsylvania Emergency Health Services Council unexpectedly showed up to present Shaler Hampton EMS with the 2023 Pennsylvania EMS Agency of the Year award.
“There are a little more than 600 ambulance services in the state of Pennsylvania, so to be designated as the best provider of the year is a huge honor,” Shaler Hampton EMS Chief Eric Schmidt said the following day. “There are many, many great ambulance services in the state of Pennsylvania and to be singled out in a positive way is certainly an amazing thing. I’ve been in this business for more than 40 years and it certainly is a memorable time.”
Schmidt added that it was a very gratifying honor for his staff.
“Our people here work very, very hard every day,” he said. “We’re huge into education. We train our future paramedics and EMTs that come to the various training institutes in the region so we have students with us almost every day and see it as part of our duty to pay it forward and help in that training. It’s just nice to see that recognized and rewarded by other people.”
Shaler board of commissioners president David Shutter, a 15-year member of the Shaler Hampton EMS board, said the award was well deserved.
“It’s been an organization that has grown over the last few years to a point where it’s providing outstanding, excellent service to the communities it represents — Shaler, Hampton and Etna,” Shutter said. “We’re very grateful that we have such an organization in our community. Our people are very supportive of our EMS organization and we feel they are exactly what they were just (recognized as) — the best.”
Chief Schmidt was the one who submitted the nomination.
“I did the nomination because we have a very unique setup here in Shaler Hampton,” Schmidt said. “Unlike many EMS agencies right now, we are fully staffed to provide the emergency services that we do. And the reason is that we have a community that supports us — from our elected officials in the three communities we serve — to our volunteer board of directors who make sure we have the resources we need to run the company and provide the service that we do.”
