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Mississippi’s first statewide memorial service for fallen EMTs, paramedics and other Emergency Medical Services professionals is set for Thursday, May 25 at 10 a.m. on the Holmes Community College Ridgeland Campus. The EMS Division at Holmes is hosting the memorial.
The event will recognize 132 emergency medical caregivers in the state who have died due to illness or injury suffered in the line of duty or in close association to duty since 1974.
Governor Tate Reeves will address attendees in the college’s workforce development center. David Hall, director of the Mississippi Department of Health Bureau of Emergency Medical Services, will also speak.
An all-volunteer group organized the service. Sandra Hultz, an EMS instructor at the college, is one of the organizers.
“The EMTs, paramedics, emergency medical dispatchers and fire-rescue personnel who we will honor gave their all to help others,” Hultz said. “The law enforcement and firefighting communities have for decades conducted memorial services for the dedicated professionals they have lost in the line of duty. EMS, the third public safety community, has also lost colleagues but we have not had a memorial service specifically for our fallen comrades. On Thursday, we will recognize EMS heroes in a ceremony focused on their sacrifices.
There is a yearly national EMS memorial service near Washington, D.C., where a number of fallen EMS caregivers from Mississippi have been memorialized,” Hultz said. “Our group felt that an annual state-level remembrance is also in order. Today we are taking a major step toward that goal. We chose this time of year because National EMS Week is always in mid-May.”
Ceremonies will include: an honor guard posting the U.S. and Mississippi flags at half-mast; an event leader reading aloud the roll of Mississippi EMS workers lost in the line of duty the past 49 years as well as the governor and Mr. Hall speaking.
Several dozen ground ambulance services and fire-rescue departments from across the state are expected to drive patient care vehicles to the service. Staff members with AirCare, the medical helicopter service at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, also plan to fly an aircraft to the event.
For more information, contact Holmes EMS Program Director Mark Galtelli at 601-209-6573 or mgaltelli@holmescc.edu.
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