By Kia Heavey
Greenwich Emergency Medical Service (GEMS) was honored on Thursday, Oct. 24, with the Career EMS Agency of the Year Award. The prestigious honor was conferred at the Connecticut EMS Awards ceremony that took place during the 2024 EMS & Fire Pro Expo + Conference at Foxwoods Resort Casino.
“Every single day, they’re out there, racing against time, saving lives,” award presenter Michael Loiz, an EMS Educator for the Hartford Healthcare Center for Education, said of GEMS. “They cover about 47 square miles, thousands of emergency calls per year. But what’s really unique is how they have woven themselves deeply into the very fabric of the communities that they serve.”
Loiz, who also serves as Stratford’s Director of EMS / 911, elaborated: “They could be teaching life saving skills to students in their communities. They could be, you k now, working with the local schools to provide training and health and safety programming, partnering with organizations … to make real change in their community. And at the end of the day, that team just does kind of everything, and I don’t always hear a lot about it. So I’m really, really happy that we’re finally able to hear a little bit more about Greenwich EMS showing up at career days … showing up to local events with their special ops team.”
“Cutting edge equipment and unshakable dedication is what these guys are delivering,” asserted Loiz. “Additionally, they are one of the few EMS departments that are providing emergency management operations for their community. This is something that, you know, I’ve been saying for years. EMS doesn’t typically get looked at for stuff like that, and they’re going out and killing it every single day.”
Loiz noted that GEMS, founded in 1986, is a fairly young EMS service. He said that since then, “they have grown from a volunteer organization into a powerhouse professional [department], recognized nationwide for their high standards and quick response times.”
Loiz closed his remarks by pointing out that GEMS is one of the only two EMS organizations in Connecticut that is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS).
Members of GEMS who were at the venue to attend the multi-day conference were present for the awards ceremony. They made their way to the front of the auditorium to accept the award in front of over 100 of their peers in various emergency service agencies nationwide.
Immediately after GEMS was honored, the neighboring town of New Canaan’s EMS received the award for Volunteer EMS Agency of the Year.
