When will this Day be celebrated? April 15th of each calendar year.
What is National EMT and Paramedic Appreciation Day?
Prior to ambulance services being created, sick people were taken to the hospital by police or the funeral home. On April 15,1967 the first ambulance call was taken by Freedom House. These were the first people trained to delivery emergency care in the streets. April 15th is a day to salute the men and women who dedicate their lives to working unselfishly to save lives everyday. They work a job that is thankless, demanding, and even dangerous. The EMT and Paramedic job over the years has drastically changed with many of them needing to wear bullet proof vests while trying to save lives. Often times working in the very community that they live in saving the lives of people that they know.
Why is this day being created?
The daily demands of the EMT and Paramedic can take a toll often well into their personal lives. Oftentimes the EMTS and Paramedics are lost within the community as being only firemen (who have a recognized day) because most people think the EMT and Paramedic work only within the fire department. EMTs and Paramedics actually work within the hospitals, flight medics, private ambulance services, Red Cross, FEMA, factories, as well as several stand alone third service agencies within cities and counties around the United States. Unknown to many, EMTs and paramedics battle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder just the same as police and firefighters. They need your support.
How should this day be observed?
On this day recognize the EMTs and Paramedics who are often overlooked in your community by:
- Offering emotional and any other support, including access to any available programs or services in the community that they may not know about.
- Showing your appreciation by participating in memorial services,
- Taking a minutes silence in memory of an EMT or Paramedic.
- Offering the crew a meal, a word or note of thanks.
- Wearing black and white, turn your social medial black and white, wear the Star of Life.
- Joining the plight to get National EMT and Paramedic Day recognized by Congress.
Who created this day? This day was created by JCC’s Intervention Program in 2022.