Lake Chelan Community Hospital EMS presents 2018 awards

CHELAN – The  Lake Chelan Community Hospital EMS banquet tradition continued, as the EMS personnel and their families were celebrated on Saturday evening  at the Chelan Senior Center.

The evening’s banquet was in honor of one of the first volunteers at Lake Chelan Valley Ambulance Association, Allen Anderson, who suddenly passed away in April 2018.

“Tonight we celebrate where we have been and get excited about where we are going,” said EMS Operations Manager Ray Eickmeyer. That day, EMS was celebrating 47 years of operations in the valley.

Eickmeyer presented the first award of the night to the spouses of EMS personnel “who have sacrificed their loved one leaving in the middle of dinner, or not showing up for dinner.”

From there he presented personnel with Save Pins for the CPR saves of a 78 year old female, a 60 year old male, a 48 year old male and a 25 year old male. Receiving the Save Pins were Jared Eygabroad, Craig Vivian, Raynor Baker, Mistaya Johnston, Chief Baker, Brandon Fogelson, John Steiner, Cendie Dietrich and Ray Eickmeyer.

Last year, Brandon Fogelson, Kurt Middleton and Jared Eygadroad helped deliver a baby girl. A few months later Fogelson, Rich Vincent and Eickmeyer did the same with another baby girl. They were presented with Baby Pins.

Rachel McCall, Brandon Fogelson and Linzy Stone received their one year pins, Jared Eygabroad received his 10 year pin. James Ashmore, Rinita Cook, Christina Eickmeyer and Ken Young received a pin for their 20 years of service.

Since 1985, Mark Courtney has been an EMT, for the most part as a volunteer. He was awarded the 34 year pin. “It’s been an honor to serve this community and it has been a great time,” he said. He is also the only EMT serving Stehekin at the moment.

In 2018, EMS did a lot, they provided 127 prevention events, 40 community standbys and had a record of responses, 1,483. That same year there was a lot of changes that allowed the team to become more compassionate and community focused. “We received more letters, more phone calls of appreciation in the last year than we did in five years combined,” said Eickmeyer.

The 2018 Edward J. Armbruster Award recipients were Brad Hankins and Jill Thompson, for their vision and foresight. Raynor Baker was awarded the 2018 Administrator’s Award for his dedication and service by LCCHC CEO Steve Patonai.

Dr. Lance Jobe was named the 2018 Director’s Award for his sacrifices above and beyond the call of duty by Eickmeyer. Chosen by her peers for her hard work and best attitude was Rachel McCall, as the 2018 Personnel of the Year.

Eickmeyer, has a vision for 2019, “I want to see us do something better for our community, not just be reactive but be preventative … my vision is that we will show the community and our peers can we can have an EMS system that not only responds to the community’s needs in an emergency, but be proactive and reactive at the same time.”