Our Team is excited as we begin our journey into 2019. We experienced a busy year in 2018 and will continue to work to be there for you all in the New Year. Our Team provided information and/or assistance to 13,503 emergency responders and their family members in 2018. Thanks to all of you who trusted us to help you.
We are thankful for all our Team members that have volunteered their time to help take care of others in their own organizations and in responding to help others. We are proud of each of our individual teams whether firefighter, EMS, or 911 telecommunicators, and are particularly proud of their combined efforts as we have responded to multiple requests to assist our emergency service personnel, their families, and their communities in difficult times.
Our training programs continue to grow and improve as we believe that taking a proactive approach to providing information is the key to overcoming the stigma of reaching out for help. We hope to see many of you in the coming year so let us know if we can bring any of our training to you. Visit our “training programs” link at www.firefightersupport.org to see what we offer.
I would like to take an opportunity as the Executive Director to recognize those who make our Team what it is. Special thanks to David Reindollar here in Charleston, Lee Hopkins in our Pee Dee region, and Mike Medeiros in our Grand Strand region for their hard work, leadership, and dedication in leading us through some tough times in 2018. We will continue to support their efforts and we hope to be adding a Beaufort region coordinator very soon to strengthen our Team.
Our Team exists to provide behavioral health services and other support to our emergency responders and their families. That effort requires the support of the community and we are blessed to have many on our Team who contribute their time and services. Timothy Hiott, our Community Outreach Coordinator, Marci-Jo Mishoe, our Special Projects Coordinator, Stephanie Dean, our Fundraising and Grants Coordinator, Nancy Paul, our Research & Development Intern, and Savannah Wall, our Administrative Assistant, all serve crucial roles in keeping us moving forward. They each bring special talents in so many ways.
We are also blessed to have Michelle Brown, as our 911 Telecommunicator Support Team Coordinator, who manages a team of twenty-one other telecommunicators from eleven different counties to offer our services to those in need. Many times, our 911 Team members have accompanied us on responses to tragic situations to help their counterparts.
The responsibility for the management of our EMS Support Team rest with four different Coordinators, Jared Hershberger in Charleston County, April Miller in Dorchester County, Laura Stephenson in Berkeley County and Kevin Gwyer in Florence County. These folks bring a unique approach to helping our EMS personnel and respond many times as a combined Team with our other teams.
Our Team prides itself on our peer-to-peer counseling efforts, but we are also blessed to enjoy a wonderful relationship with our Team clinicians all over the Lowcountry. In addition to the ones that provide behavioral health counseling, we are equally blessed to have three clinicians, Amanda Custer, Chris Wells, and Sherie Corbett who provide training support to our team to keep us ready to provide quality and caring service.
Our management team is rounded out by our two Chaplains, Doug Farmer and Herman Hampton, who bring spiritual guidance, good advice, and heartfelt direction to all we do. This management team is supported by forty additional Team members who serve as peer counselors in keeping our program going.
We are excited, entering the New Year, to be able to continue to serve all our emergency services personnel and their families with our hope to simply make their lives better. Contact us through our website, our Facebook page, or by phone at 843-609-300 if we can be of assistance to you.
Please keep up with us in our Facebook page and website for continuing updates on our work. May you all be blessed with a happy and prosperous New Year!