The 11th Annual National Moment of Silence is scheduled to occur at 20:00 hrs. EDT, Saturday, May 24, 2008.
The National Moment of Silence is a project of the National EMS Memorial Service. Reading these pages should provide you with any information you might need to participate but should you require additional information or have any questions, please fell free to contact us at info@nemsms.org.
BACKGROUND:
The National EMS Memorial Service Board of Directors had been looking at how to address the issue of allowing all of America’s EMS providers who can not be personally in attendance at the Memorial Service each year with a way of participating and honoring those who have fallen in the line of duty. A number of ideas were put forward but the one chosen is the National Moment of Silence.
This choice was made for a number of reasons but the three primary are:
- It is the least intrusive and distracting to those providers who might be rendering patient care at the Moment.
- It is the least intrusive to our civilian neighbors
- While some other, more public methods were suggested, it is not the intention of this project to get the general public involved, that we leave to individual local agencies. Our mission is to provide a method of participation for the members of our profession.
OVERVIEW:
The National Moment of Silence offers EMS providers and agencies around the nation the opportunity to join with those in attendance at the National EMS Memorial Service in honoring and remembering those members of our nation’s Emergency Medical Services who have made the ultimate sacrifice and given their lives in the line of duty.
The National Moment of Silence seeks voluntary participation by all the nation’s EMS providers, agencies and emergency communications centers in observing a moment of radio silence timed to coincide with the moment of silence observed during the actual Memorial Service held annually in Roanoke. Participating agencies are provided with a “suggested script” outlining the time of the Moment, set this year for 20:00 hrs. EDT, Saturday, May 24, 2008.
While the suggested length of the Moment is 60 seconds, participants are free to adjust that to meet the specific needs of their service area.
PARTICIPATION:
Agencies wishing to participate may download an Information Packet from this site, check your National EMS Week promotion packet for information, watch for information in JEMS or EMS Magazine, or you may send a SASE to the address below with a request for an information packet.
To give us an idea of participation levels, we request that agencies planning to participate in this project notify us by following the instructions on the Participant Info Sheet.