By Jason Brown
The Advocate
LAFAYETTE, La. — Acadian Ambulance Service named Chuck Benedict “Paramedic of the Year” on Thursday shortly after a football great delivered a motivational speech during the company’s annual Paramedic Luncheon.
About 1,400 people attended the event, which featured keynote speaker Peyton Manning, the Indianapolis Colts’ star quarterback, a three-time NFL Most Valuable Player and a New Orleans native.
State Rep. Fred Mills, D-St. Martinville, served as master of ceremonies and introduced Manning’s father, New Orleans Saints football legend Archie Manning, who gave a video introduction of his son.
Peyton Manning used anecdotes he has learned during his nine years with the Colts; time that has taught him the importance of leadership, accountability, learning from mistakes, playing as a team, setting goals and remembering the fundamentals.
“This is the challenge: when you go back home look for something, no matter how small, that can make a difference; that can make you as an individual and your team and your company and your community better,” he said.
The luncheon coincided with National EMS Week, which honors those working in emergency medical services across the country.
“Our EMTs and paramedics are critical assets in every community. Taking care of you in your hour of need before you even get to the emergency department in the hospital,” said Dr. Ross Judice, chief medical officer for Acadian Ambulance Service Inc.
Benedict is a seven-year veteran of Acadian Ambulance and is stationed in LaPlace as a critical care transport paramedic. He was introduced as a family man who was thankful for his life, his job and the love his family has shown him.
“If attitude is contagious, then what can spread better than a smile,” Judice said. “He knows that he sees people on their worst days and feels that is his opportunity to make their day better.”
In a video about Benedict, the narrator described the paramedic’s most memorable call as the one that occurred just two days after he received his paramedic status when Benedict saved three people trapped in a van submerged in a waterway off the road.
Benedict himself was more modest.
“It’s never work if you enjoy what you’re doing and I believe that,” Benedict said.
He encouraged other paramedics to remember what first brought them to the field. He asked them to smile, even if they had to force themselves, because perhaps the smile would catch on and become contagious.
“It’s the attitude that makes us No. 1,” he said of the company and its paramedics.
The company singled out 11 others who were finalists for the award.
They were as follows: Jay Authement, New Orleans Region; Derek Bizette, Capital Region; Ken Dartez, Air Med Services; Frank Duke, Mississippi; Barbara Husser, Northshore Region; Paul Hux, Safety Management Systems; Scott Johnson, Central Louisiana; Sharon Patton, Southeast Texas; David Savoy, Acadiana Region; Steve Simon, Southwest Region; Pedro Tamez, South Central Texas.
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