Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Over 200 EMS first responders from across Ontario cycled through Greater Napanee last week as part of the seventh annual Paramedic Ride.
The travelling cyclists spent the night in Napanee on Sept. 15 before hitting the road the next morning for two more days of riding en route to Ottawa. All told they biked 550 km from Toronto to Ottawa in four days.
Riding collected pledges, raising over $47,000. Members of the pack included members of Lennox and Addington County EMS.
“Eventually we’re fundraising for the building of a memorial,” explained Darren Boonstra, director of public relations for the Ontario Paramedic Ride, as well as being a paramedic. “The memorial is to memorialize the paramedics that have died on the job in the line of duty. Our job comes with some inherent risks. We’re always working and those risks are sort of secondary to trying to help people. Unfortunately, we’ve had enough people (die) that we see fit to get a memorial in place.”
Boonstra says they aim to get one built in Ottawa near similar monuments already in place for police, fire and military personnel.
“There’s definitely times where paramedics are putting themselves in the same risks as fire and police,” said Boonstra. “I’m not going to try and compare because the jobs are very different. We work together as a team. We have very different jobs but these jobs will put us in harm’s way at times.”
There’s also the unseen dangers of the job, like the effect witnessing traumatic injuries can have on a front line emergency crew member.
“We’ve started to recognize that mental health is a legitimate risk in our job,” added Boonstra. “It’s something people haven’t been so keen on recognizing because it was always that mentality that you trained for this, it’s your job, this is what you get paid for. We’re just normal people doing an abnormal job. We’re exposed to calls the average person shouldn’t really be exposed to, but we’re seeing it on a daily basis where most people see it once in their entire life. Over time that will take a toll on somebody’s well being.”
Similar rides have taken place across Canada this summer, with all the money going towards the building of a monument.