Many of you readers know that I tend to get a bit – okay, maybe more than a bit – preachy about volunteering. I think we owe our assistance and financial support to our community, our religious and educational organizations, the groups that provide for assistance to those who are in need, and the committees that support quality of life issues. Sometimes I get to say all of that right here.

This is one of those times.

Elsewhere in this edition of the Peabody Gazette-Bulletin you may see a photo of several people lined up to accept a donation from Peabody Community Foundation that will put them in the classroom to learn the basics of Emergency Medical Technicians. Lindsay Hutchison, Lucas Larsen, Kim McCleary, Angela Straub, and Jylle Wilson all have volunteered to take the training necessary to become part of the emergency personnel that will serve our community.

In addition, the PCF stepped up to the plate and provided enough money to educate and train all of them to help save your life if you ever need them. Pretty good deal all around, huh?

You may recall that there was a recent city council meeting at which local EMS director Larry Larsen shared information on the number of hours our local ambulance people were on call each month. For the month of September some emergency volunteers covered a few hours and some covered between 500 and 700 hours. Why? Because Peabody did not have enough trained people to handle all of the time that need to be covered. It was noted that we even had hours when no one was available to be on call.

Not being able to count on emergency services in a town like ours with no resident physician or local hospital essentially means there is no quick response to life or death crises. It means we have to wait for help from another community between 10 and 20 miles away. That is a long time to wait if a life is hanging in the balance.

Classes to train additional volunteers were scheduled to begin in Marion County in mid-September, but some prospective students did not have the funds to pay for the required training. To help the community meet its goal of adding emergency medical technicians to cover the hours of on-call service, Peabody Community Foundation created a grant to pay for the training.

Monday night at Peabody’s City Council meeting, Peabody Community Foundation President Nelson Patton presented the city and four of the community’s five new volunteers with a check to pay for the training that will bring a group of committed young people into the ranks of those who will be there if your family needs medical assistance. It was a good moment for those who signed on to serve, for the community that will reap the benefits, and for the foundation that found a way to fund a cause that truly will serve Peabody.

We all are winners and I get a kick out of preaching about that.

— SUSAN MARSHALl