[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 7, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          TRIBUTE TO ST. MICHAEL'S COLLEGE STUDENT VOLUNTEERS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I wish to draw the attention of the Senate 
to a group of selfless volunteers at St. Michael's College in 
Colchester, VT, who sacrificed time with their families and friends 
this past holiday season to ensure that Vermonters in need of emergency 
services had someone to call upon even on the Christmas holiday.
  St. Michael's Fire and Rescue was founded in 1969 and has been 
staffed and operated by student volunteers ever since. Donald Sutton, 
affectionately known as ``Pappy'' around the firehouse, helped start 
the organization as dean and director of campus security following the 
untimely death of a student athlete on campus. Nearly 40 years later, 
the organization serves as the primarily ambulance and fire service for 
a large portion of the State's most populous region, Chittenden County.
  The student volunteers who make this organization run find time 
outside of their rigorous course work to not only be on call but also 
to complete hundreds of hours of Emergency Medical Technician training 
and Firefighter training. While their classmates may be battling 
another school on the ice, on the field, or on the court--St. Michael's 
Fire and Rescue members are risking their lives in real-life emergency 
situations, aiding the sick, and putting out fires. Even during the 
holidays, when schools shut down and students usually go home to visit 
with family, these students stand watch for their community.
  While I was at my family farm in Middlesex this holiday season, I 
came across a Christmas Day Burlington Free Press article highlighting 
the sacrifice of these students. I ask unanimous consent that the text 
of that article be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

            [From the Burlington Free Press, Dec. 25, 2008]

                 No Break for Students on Rescue Squad

                         (by Joel Banner Baird)

       Colchester.--Their classmates might delight in holiday 
     downtime: late nights, late mornings, heavy meals and torpor.
       On the night before Christmas, a student-staffed rescue 
     squad at St. Michael's College remains on-call and alert--by 
     choice. Time off will come to squad Capt. Kristen Dalton, 21, 
     later this week, after a 90-hour week at the College Parkway 
     station.
       Her fellow St. Mike's seniors, Mark Petersen and Peter 
     Cronin, both 21, opted for holiday duty, too.
       This is more than a club. The squad's 20 members are first-
     responders who you see tending to car-wreck victims and 
     heart-attack patients. They respond to more than 2,700 calls 
     every year from Chittenden County residents, most of them in 
     Colchester, Winooski and Hinesburg. Dalton looked cheerful on 
     a slow Wednesday morning.
       The biology major and pre-med student said she typically 
     logs 40 to 50 hours per week at St. Michael's Fire and 
     Rescue.
       Each volunteer, certified as an Emergency Medical 
     Technician, puts in at least 24 hours per week, including a 
     12-hour overnight shift at the station.
       ``We hold ourselves to a 3-minute response time,'' Dalton 
     said. ``I throw a jumpsuit over my pajamas, I'm in my boots, 
     and I'm out the door.''
       Like his captain, Petersen joined the squad as a freshman. 
     He said the commitment taught him how to juggle academic 
     commitments.
       ``It really, really forces you into time management,'' he 
     said.
       Another learning curve brought him up to speed as a member 
     of a larger, adult community.
       ``What we do here is a lot of consequence-based decision-
     making,'' he said. ``You see the results of your actions 
     right away. It makes you step back and say, `Hey--I'm not a 
     kid anymore.' ''
       Interrupting him, a call came through dispatch: An infant 
     in Plattsburgh, N.Y., needed to be transported to Fletcher 
     Allen.
       Petersen and Cronin did a final inspection of the neo-natal 
     intensive care truck--one of the station's three ambulances--
     and headed out to pick up a specialist at the hospital en 
     route to New York.
       Christmas Eve's activities would be anybody's guess. 
     Wrapped packages lay beneath a decorated tree in the ready 
     room. Cronin's parents said they'd cook breakfast for the 
     volunteers on Christmas morning.
       Dalton said the squad would lose almost half of its members 
     after graduation. She's already planning a spring recruitment 
     drive.
       ``This attracts a lot of different people--people who want 
     to do something good with their time,'' she said.
       As if on cue, Kate Soons of Colchester, a self-described 
     ``lingering alum,'' entered with an overnight bag. She'd 
     heard about the Plattsburgh call and wanted to provide 
     backup.
       Soons served with the squad in the 1980s, and now is a 
     nurse at Fletcher Allen. She also coordinates regional 
     emergency care training, and keeps tabs on St. Mike's 
     graduates who have chosen to stay active in the field.
       Begun in 1969, the rescue squad is the busiest volunteer 
     ambulance unit in the state, she said.
       ``It's a big family,'' she said.
       Soons' husband, Pete Soons, also served with rescue 
     volunteers as an undergraduate. He directs the college's 
     department of public safety, overseeing campus security, 
     rescue and fire squads.
       Unlike the rescue volunteers, St. Michael's 25 firefighters 
     have an off-campus affiliation; they're a battalion in the 
     Colchester Center Volunteer Fire Company.
       Standing between a hose truck and an engine, company 
     firefighter Gary Zeno discussed hydrant fittings with 
     freshman Andrea Dillner, 19. Still in training, Dillner will 
     accompany squads as a rookie until she qualifies for hands-on 
     work.
       Nonetheless, she volunteered.
       After a briefing with Zeno, she headed upstairs, past a 
     wall-sized calendar of shift schedules and birthdays, to take 
     a nap.
       Dalton, coffee in hand, looked as wide-awake as ever on the 
     night before Christmas.

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