By Leila Merrill
SACKETS HARBOR, N.Y. — When many adults were leaving their posts as volunteers with the Sackets Harbor Fire Company’s EMS crew as the pandemic began, a group of high schoolers stepped up, CBS News reported.
Now Sackets Harbor’s entire EMS workforce is under 21.
New York state allows people to become an EMT as young as 17, and the young New Yorkers got their training and licenses.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10159702985229738&id=197979899737
“We went from not even having our licenses to saving people’s lives,” Dalton Hardison said.
Grayden Brunet, 20, is the captain in the town of 1,400, NPR reported.
“My whole time being an officer here has been COVID,” he said. “So it’s definitely been a learning experience.”
The fire department provides the ambulance service free of charge to patients and has a fundraiser in progress. So far, $4,640 has been raised.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/young-adults-step-up-during-emt-shortage-in-ny-town/