Celebrating First Responders
By Margot Lester, SORS volunteer
First responders answer the call
In 2017, Congress established National First Responders Day. Each October 28, we honor the paramedics, EMTs, firefighters, police and other career and volunteer rescuers who are the first to arrive on the scene in emergencies.
That includes SORS’ highly trained volunteers, like Paramedic Katie Vanderweide and EMT Thomas Parrott. In addition to their day jobs, they both serve on our Technical Rescue Team, which responds to situations requiring specialized support, such as land search-and-rescue, swiftwater and high-angle rescue. The duo also joins other SORS first responders to train professionals and local residentsin support of our community engagement mission.
Learn more about how our all-volunteer squad operates.
EMT Thomas Parrott and Paramedic Katie Vanderweide are two of the many SORS first responder volunteers who serve our community and beyond.
‘I’m here to help’
“The most important thing you need to know is that as a first responder, I’m there to help,” notes Vanderweide, a paramedic with North State Medical Transport. She’s been in the field for 13 years and a SORS volunteer for 9.
“You have to be able to put yourself in other people’s shoes,” she explains. “Particularly given the many current issues in healthcare, people often feel like nobody cares about their problem or understands how hard it is to have a chronic illness. Often, the best thing that I can offer is a non-judgmental ear. I’m not interested in shaming or blaming anyone.”
Being a first responder requires training so you know best practices and also have a deep well to draw from when things get squirrely. While TV and movies often make it look like first responders just show up and start saving people or putting out fires, the first response is usually planning.
“You have to be able to remain calm in confusing, chaotic, and, often, emotionally charged
situations,” she says. “While we do have a lot of training and education, every situation is different. You need the ability to adapt within an established protocol. We have certain guidelines, standard practices and plans. Yet, we have to make these work in the real world. So a lot of our job is about figuring out the situation, deciding what to do first, noticing little things and beginning to think about what we’ll try if that doesn’t work.”
SORS TRT members Katie Vanderweide and Thomas Parrott demonstrate the log roll technique with help from Carrboro Fire Chief Will Potter as part of a search-and-rescue training for participants in Orange County’s Community Emergency Response Team program.
‘An amazing feeling’
“I volunteer to give back to the community and to interact with people that also have a passion for public service,” says Parrott, a 5-year SORS volunteer and TRT operations lieutenant. Before joining SORS, Parrott was a firefighter with the Deep Gap Volunteer Fire Department in Watauga County. “Getting to help other people and making a difference in someone else’s life is an amazing feeling.”
The job of first responder is demanding. Beyond the training required, Parrott says effective first responders also possess a few key traits.
“Caring, because those that we are helping are experiencing a horrible and or scary situation and they need someone that is going to lend a hand, listen to what they are going through and help regardless of the background,” he explains. “Adaptability, because any event or incident is like a snowflake—no two are identical—and first responders need to adapt to each one. And patience, since these events can be very long in duration and we need to understand the long response times for support from other states or the federal government. Things may not be solved in an instant.”
Wanting to work on a larger scale, Parrott is now an emergency management specialist with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety Division of Emergency Management.
“I work on the organization of multiple first responder groups such as fire, rescue, EMS and police,” he explains. “We create plans and help direct resources to large-scale incidents such as floods, hurricanes, wildfires, and snowstorms.”
See how SORS works with other first responder organizations.
SORS volunteers, seen here at our annual dinner, are always prepared to serve. Photo: Fred Stipe
How you can help
The rewards of being a first responder are many, but the job can carry an emotional toll, Parrott acknowledges.
“The people you see responding to these incidents are not made of steel,” he reminds us. “Showing your support to first responders—by saying thanks, offering to volunteer time or donating money—makes a big difference.”
Margot Lester, a former SORS board member and currently a strategic communications and advocacy volunteer, is also an Orange County Community Emergency Response Team member.
Photos by Margot Lester except as otherwise noted.
The South Orange Dispatch is a monthly column on Chapelboro by the South Orange Rescue Squad: an all volunteer, 501c3 non-profit providing EMS and technical rescue services in the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area of Orange County since 1971.
