Northwestern Ambulance Corps.
A volunteer operated 501(c)(3) non
profit emergency services organization
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Northwestern Ambulance Corps.
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The obituary in the Morning Call read: Rose E. Williams, 40 years, of New Tripoli, As the age of volunteerism quickly seems to be disappearing, every once in a while an organization like Northwestern Ambulance gets a little surprise, someone knocks on your door and says, "I want to help, put me to work". You'd expect that person to be a teenager, a kid who grew up in a setting where the parents taught that everything in life doesn't revolve around money and that helping others makes you feel good. You'd expect to see that person right? Image our surprise when we answered the knock on our door late in 2003. There was Rose, hardly a kid, but about the physical size of one. Short, petite, and sporting a smile that was as wide as the broad side of a barn and very contagious. At nearly 40 years old, why would this woman, a career professional with a busy job, a husband and kids, a social life...why would she want to volunteer with an emergency ambulance squad?
Well, who could argue? In an effort not to discourage but to be realistic, I recall saying to her, that the required training is time consuming, that you need to pass tests and devote a lot of hours to this. I told her it's not easy and sometimes it's not fun. All of us here told her, you see sick people, you could even get sick yourself. You'll see hurt children, bad accidents, Rose I said, you see dead people too. She told us that it sounded like all of those people could use her help - and asked - "when do I get started?" And so began the short, way too short, volunteer EMT career of Rose Williams. Rose was a volunteer through and through. She knew the meaning of self sacrifice for others...she knew how that sacrifice made people feel - it makes them feel good. She wanted to try to get others to feel good too by promoting volunteering, and often wondered how she could help. Being a realistic person, she also knew the reasons why volunteerism was declining in all services, and she saw how the financial hardships of this sad fact affected the operations of previously all-volunteer organizations, just like Northwestern Ambulance Corps. She knew that people who wanted careers in this field would need some help - most importantly she knew the field of emergency medical services needed more qualified and dedicated people, whether they chose career or volunteer paths. As you can imagine, Rose was an instant hit with the both the Corps' members and the patients. Everyone loved Rose - she made everybody smile and laugh but she took her role of professional responsibility very seriously. She not only met the minimum training requirements for being a certified PA Department of Health EMT, but she also raised the bar by going the extra distance to become the first Nationally Registered EMT in Northwestern's history. I had the pleasure of being one of her EMT instructors. As Northwestern Ambulance Corps went through the restructuring of turning our organization into an advanced life support service, Rose would constantly champion the change and its benefits to everyone who would listen. Her business acumen and grounded common-sense approach to things helped others find clarity in some of the complex changes that were needed to meet this goal. Rose knew change was going to be good for Northwestern and she promoted it with a passion. Thankfully Rose saw the day that Northwestern began to provide our own ALS services, she was thrilled by the change and what it meant to the health and well-being of our patients. She wanted to continue to challenge herself even further in pre-hospital medicine - setting another personal goal - vowing to devote an additional and intensive 1500 training hours (on her own time) to become a paramedic. Rose died before she could fulfill that dream. We all miss Rose very much. -David K. Van Allen, NREMT-P,
FP-C
The Rose E. Williams Emergency Medical Services Scholarship Fund After Rose's passing, two organizations that were touched by Rose and her family conceived a way to take her spirit of helping others and put it to work in a way Rose herself would have done. The Northwestern Youth Athletic Association and the Northwestern Ambulance Corps, in conjunction with the New Tripoli Bank, created and act as the trustees of The Rose E. Williams Emergency Medical Services Scholarship Fund. Initial donations from the founding organizations and others, along with continuing donations, now make it possible for the Fund to help advance the training and recruitment of people interested in becoming or enhancing their training as First Responders, Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics. Rose felt that some people just need a little extra push to get interested in something; often times that extra push is gained by a bit of financial help. Starting in 2006, the Trustees of the Fund will award grants and gifts singularly or in combination to training facilities, non-profit organizations and individuals that are directly related to the furtherance of emergency medical services, or to persons who seek to enter or further their career in the field of pre-hospital emergency medicine in our area. The distribution of funds will be generally related to a competitive process starting with written applications that explain the need for funding and the expected outcome. The Trustees will make final disbursement decisions periodically throughout the year on those competitive applications as well as on funding areas where the Trustees as a group believe the Fund will do the most good. All funding will be in the field of emergency medical services with an emphasis on applications that foster volunteerism. If you or your organization fits the spirit of the funding guidelines, please submit a written request that includes:
Requests for funding will be accepted throughout FY 2008, ending on November 30, 2008. If you feel you or your organization fits within the spirit of the Rose E. Williams Emergency Medical Services Scholarship Fund, please send your request that meets the above guidelines to:
Kathryn Van Allen is the program administrator for the fund. She can be reached at 610-298-2101. Only written applications will be accepted. About the Northwestern Youth Athletic Association. The NYAA is a volunteer organization that was created in 1983 for the children of the Northwestern Lehigh School District. Its purpose is to encourage and actively promote good sportsmanship, leadership, discipline and respect among the team members, parents and coaches. Rose's children are actively involved in sports. About the New Tripoli Bank. New Tripoli Bank is a locally owned bank serving the Northwestern area since 1910. They have banking offices in New Tripoli and Claussville where they provide financial services in a caring and friendly environment. About Northwestern Ambulance Corps. Northwestern EMS is an Advanced Life Support (ALS) emergency medical ambulance service operating as a non-profit 501(c)(3) volunteer run organization. For over 35 years our highly trained staff, a combination of volunteer and career first responders, EMTs and paramedics, proudly serve over a 100 square mile region of northwestern Lehigh and parts of eastern Berks counties.
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