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Omniflight Helicopters, Inc. Employees to Be Honored in Alabama Ceremony Recognizing Emergency Medical Personnel

Dépèche transmise le 17 juin 2009 par Business Wire

Omniflight Helicopters, Inc. Employees to Be Honored in Alabama Ceremony Recognizing Emergency Medical Personnel

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Omniflight Helicopters, Inc., a leading national provider of air medical services, announced today that 20 flight team members of its Alabama Life Saver program will be recognized at the upcoming “Honoring Our Heroes” special event to be held Friday, June 19, 2009 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex Arena.

The Alabama legislature passed a joint resolution, signed by Gov. Bob Riley, declaring June 19, 2009, Alabama Firefighter and Emergency Medical Personnel Day. This date coincides with the Alabama Sports Festival’s Opening Ceremonies. The Alabama Sports Festival will continue its Honoring Our Heroes program by recognizing the service and sacrifice of Alabama’s firefighters and emergency medical personnel. Firefighters and EMS personnel with a minimum of 10 years of service are eligible to receive the Medal of Service for active, volunteer, retired, disabled, or deceased firefighters and EMS personnel. The Medal of Sacrifice will be presented on behalf of all firefighters and EMS personnel who lost their lives in the line of duty, regardless of length of service, and will be presented to a family member. Both medals are designed and minted exclusively for this special ceremony.

The ceremony will be televised throughout Alabama from 7:00 p.m. – 7:58 p.m. local time on all of the local major network affiliates. During the ceremony, more than 1,000 local emergency medical personnel are expected to be acknowledged.

Omniflight will have on display one of four of their Alabama Life Saver helicopters used in the daily transport of patients across the state.

The medals will be bestowed to Omniflight’s Alabama Life Saver crew members, including pilots, medics, flight nurses and maintenance personnel, by Amy Patton, manager of business development-Alabama. These include:

• Lezlie Boswell - flight nurse
• Brandon Beck - flight medic
• Carlos Brzobohaty - pilot
• Dr. Robert Carraway - founder of Life Saver
• Charlie Couey - flight nurse, management
• Heath Daniel - flight medic
• Joey DeGeorge - flight medic
• Sherri Dempsey Johnson - flight medic
• Susan Donaldson - flight nurse
• Leslie Powell - pilot
• Mark Tyler - maintenance manager
• Jamie Jackson - flight nurse
• Lynda Larue - flight nurse, management
• Rick Machen - maintenance technician
• Don Malloy – pilot
• Renee Miller - flight nurse
• EJ Munnerlyn - flight medic
• Julia Nelms - flight nurse
• Shane Parker - flight medic
• Dan Smith - pilot
• Ricky Vest - flight medic
• Don Wilson - flight medic

“This event is so momentous in that it recognizes the dedication put forth and the dangers faced each and every day by emergency medical personnel as they do their jobs in protecting citizens and communities. All of us at Omniflight are extremely proud of the dedicated Alabama Life Saver employees to be acknowledged at this event as well as all the Alabama public emergency service professionals being honored. We appreciate the effort and commitment put forth by the Alabama State Games and all the sponsors in identifying all these important individuals and taking the time to showcase their dedication in front of this large and captive audience,” said Robert A. Peiser, Omniflight chairman and chief executive officer.

To best honor firefighters and EMS personnel, the Alabama Sports Festival created a state advisory committee, comprised of firefighting and EMS professionals and veterans, to assist in making the 2009 Honoring Our Heroes program something that all Alabama firefighters and EMS personnel would appreciate and enjoy. The committee has been involved in many aspects of the planning, particularly in the crafting of the medals to be awarded at the ceremony.

Alabama Life Saver has been providing air medical services to Birmingham and various surrounding communities for 28 years. Alabama Life Saver was started by Dr. Robert Carraway, who is also being honored at this event, in 1981. He masterminded the program, which was the state’s first airborne emergency service at Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham. Since that time, the program has transported more than 30,000 patients and flown 2.5+ million miles. Omniflight, which purchased Alabama Life Saver in 2001, operates a total of five helicopters from five bases in Alabama, including those in Birmingham, Opelika, Gadsden and Sylacauga as well as one at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham. Go to www.omniflight.com/lifesaver to learn more.

Addison, Texas-based Omniflight Helicopters, Inc. is a leading provider of air medical services throughout the U.S. The company operates 100 aircraft nationally and operates from 74 bases in 18 states, with a strong presence across the Southwest, Midwest and Southeast regions as well as certain Mountain State areas. Its focus is primarily on inter-facility and on-site emergency scene response using both rotor and fixed-wing aircraft. For more information, please visit www.omniflight.com.