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Funds help Poland, medic-hopefuls
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Shaun Serich, 24, oversees the Western Reserve Joint Fire District’s program that pays for volunteers to obtain their paramedic certification at Youngstown State University, including tuition and books. Eight volunteers are participating in the program, which requires them to put in eight hours at the station, maintain a 3.0 grade-point average and have a professional attitude.
By KALEA HALL
khall@vindy.com
POLAND
People are alive today in the Poland community thanks to the life-saving efforts of volunteer paramedics at the Western Reserve Joint Fire District.
Fire Chief David “Chip” Comstock is confident in this and in the program the fire district has been able to sustain since 2011 with a roughly $450,000 federal grant used to pay college tuition for eight volunteers.
The program has done two things, Comstock said.
“For one, we have been able to add a number of paramedics to the couple [we had], which has permitted us to provide advanced life support to the community. With every student, they have brought some friends with them and so our [volunteer] numbers have increased.”
The district applied for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response award in 2010 and received it in 2011. Since then, students have applied and enrolled at Youngstown State University to obtain their paramedic certification, which takes four semesters, and they can then choose to go back for more schooling in the health field.
Before this program, the district had few volunteers certified as paramedics and, by the end of the program, there will be from 12 to 15 certified paramedics. The effort also involves getting others outside of the program with a paramedic certification interested in volunteering for the district.
“We rely on volunteers so we have been able to keep the cost down while increasing our ability to respond to emergencies,” Comstock said.
But there is an end to the grant funds. Next spring, the fund will have been exhausted. Now, alternatives are being discussed to replace the dollars and keep the program running.
One option is to ask the community to support the program through a levy “with the hope that residents recognize the benefits of this program in comparison to a relatively small cost,” Comstock said.
The levy could cost as little as $20 annually and would most likely appear on the May 2015 ballot.
The eight students in the program now are required to put in eight hours at the station, maintain a 3.0 grade-point average and have a professional attitude. In exchange, they have their tuition, books and other expenses paid.
Shaun Serich, 24, firefighter and paramedic for the district and Boardman Township, oversees the program and also used it for his last year at YSU for a bachelor’s degree in allied health, a minor in psychology and an associate degree in emergency medical services.
The program “brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm,” Serich said.
Six of the eight students in the program are grateful to have their tuition covered and for the opportunity to learn how to serve.
Janett Ziegler, 20, has been a volunteer at Western Reserve Fire District for 21⁄2 years. She also is a part-time paramedic for Rural Metro Ambulance Services. She just finished the paramedic program at YSU with the district’s scholarship, and she wants to further her education toward a bachelor’s degree in biology.
“Every time you face a challenge you think, ‘I am scared,’ and then after that you feel accomplished,” Ziegler said. “There is always something you can learn.”
Her brother, William Ziegler, 22, also has volunteered at the district for the past 21⁄2 years. He’s finishing the paramedic program on the district’s scholarship at YSU.
“It has changed my way of life,” William Ziegler said. “It was an opportunity that arose, and I chose to grab it and go with it.”
The scholarship program also helped offset the cost of tuition for Heather Woodward, 18, David Yash, 26, Connor O’Halloran, 24, and Robert Sanchez, 21. Also in the program are Nick Graf and J.R. Warren.
“Other than financially, I don’t think without the program I would be able to go to school as rigorously as I am,” said Yash, a seven-year volunteer firefighter and paramedic for the district now studying biology at YSU.
Assistant Fire Chief Jim Stewart, a volunteer at the department for 37 years, would also like to see the program continue.
“It’s beneficial to our community,” Stewart said. “To do what they are doing is really a dedication. They are always doing something, somewhere.”