GREENVILLE — Spirit Medical Transport LLC, recently announce it had awarded 14 EMT scholarships to individuals living in the western Ohio and Indiana region. Two of these individuals are residents of Preble County
Among those awarded scholarships were Nathan Berkebile of Ohio City; Anthony “Tony” Beyke of Celina; Darrian Bradshaw of Portland, Indiana.; Mikayla Combs of Hamilton; Staci Flint of Dayton; Mary Flippo of Greenville; Angela Hemmelgarn of New Paris; Jessica Kimball of Arcanum; Julia Miller of Middletown; Jordyn Page of Sidney; Yvonne Phillips of Convoy; Lori Spence of Richmond, Indiana; Isaiah Webster of Convoy; and Misti Wells of Eaton.
Citing a lack of well-qualified EMTs available in the area, this past August Spirit announced it would be awarding scholarships to 15 qualifying individuals. In response over 35 people completed applications, twenty of which made it to the final selection process. Of the twenty applicants, 15 were chosen with 14 actively enrolled in the classes being held at Spirit’s Greenville office.
Brian K. Hathaway, President/CEO of Spirit Medical Transport, LLC, was pleased with the response received.
“We have been able to select from a diverse group of people that will enable the Spirit family of professionals to care for those we’ve been entrusted to serve,” Hathaway explained. “The age of our scholarship recipients ranges from 19 to 57. The final selection process included evaluation of professional standards including dependability, responsibility, and exceptional customer service skills. I’m excited for each one of them and their future career in EMS.”
Hathaway said the 14 students are in class five days a week. Aside from seven weeks of classroom instruction, the students will also do a clinical rotation on the Spirit ambulances, as well as in the emergency rooms at either Wayne HealthCare in Greenville or Van Wert County Hospital in Van Wert.
The class is a cooperative effort between Four County Career Center in Archbold and Spirit Medical Transport, LLC, with instructors from the school’s adult vocational program and employees of Spirit Medical Transport, LLC, who are certified EMS instructors. The lead instructors include Dan Fredrick of Defiance and Mike Woodford of Greenville.
The class syllabus also includes several “extra” learning experiences together with the opportunity to attend a cadaver lab at the University of Toledo Medical School; a day focused on how to excel at customer service as an EMT; and a basic emergency vehicle operations course focused on emergency and non-emergency driving habits. A series of lectures are also being provided by Joe VanVickle of the Darke County Coroner’s Office and Chief Mark Whittaker of the Darke County Sheriff’s Office.
If all goes according to plan, all 14 EMT students will be fully trained and functioning as certified EMTs by mid-December. Business officials report after the scholarships were awarded, there were several additional people asking about submitting an application.
“We’re a few weeks into class now and things are going exceedingly well,” Hathaway remarked. “Given the success we’ve seen thus far, I expect that even more local people will take advantage of the scholarship opportunity during round two of the selection process.”
Hathaway said the program is not only designed to help the local business grow, it was also created to give back to local community-based providers as well.
“The scholarship was designed not only as an investment in our business, but also as a means of opening the doors of opportunity to those individuals who are in pursuit of a rewarding career and have a passion to serve people during some of the roughest days of their lives,” Hathaway concluded. “As a company, we are excited about enabling personal growth and career success to those who are participating in our scholarship program and have a strong desire to serve the friends, neighbors, and total strangers in the places they live.”
