By John Kriz
Perched on South Avenue, just to the south of the soon-to-be-re-opened police headquarters, is New Canaan EMS, Inc. (Emergency Medical Service) www.newcanaanems.org , a non-profit which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary this year. This all-volunteer group of around forty State-certified Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), ranging from high school students to seniors, responds to calls in town for health emergencies, injuries from motor vehicle accidents or other causes, and mental health and addiction crises. In 2024, EMS responded to just short of 1800 calls for service – an average of nearly five each day.
EMS is staffed 24/7 with a minimum of one full crew, consisting of a stocked, ready-to-roll ambulance, with two EMTs as well as a paramedic, who has a higher level of training and can utilize additional medical equipment and administer certain drugs. The paramedic is called in for so-called Advanced Life Saving (ALS) tasks, and is paid for by the town through a contract with Norwalk Hospital.
In 2024 New Canaan’s EMS received the ‘Connecticut EMS Volunteer Agency of the Year’ award from a regional EMS group. New Canaan’s EMS is one of the few in Connecticut that does not charge for a call.
First Selectman Dionna Carlson sums it up well, saying, “For 50 years, the all-volunteer members of New Canaan EMS have answered the call with courage, compassion, and unwavering commitment. We are profoundly grateful for their selfless service and the countless lives they’ve touched in our community. Here’s to a proud legacy of care — and to many more years of excellence.”
EMS History
According to longtime EMT Amy Kennedy, EMS’s charter was mostly written by local attorney Russell Kimes Jr., who is still in town. “He and number of other community members had decided that it would be good to have an ambulance in our community, so they started with one basically hearse-like ambulance.” The ambulance was stationed behind the police station, which was then located in town hall. In time, EMS moved to its current location, which had another building on the site, which had originally been the high school science department. That’s from when the current police headquarters was the high school. That facility was torn down, and EMS’s current, purpose-built building was completed in 2009.
Training & Equipment
All EMS members must go through State-certified training and testing to become EMTs. The training is offered annually, comprising about 150 hours over five months. Anyone can take this training, which costs $1400. If you become certified, join New Canaan EMS and remain a volunteer for a year, this cost is reimbursed. New EMT volunteers go through a probationary period of six to twelve months. Periodic retraining is required to maintain the EMT certification.
A key reason for ongoing training is to be trained for a range of scenarios – scenarios an EMT might rarely, if ever, encounter. On any given day an EMT might get no calls, or have to deal with something that person has never seen before.
And recruitment? According to EMT and Second Lieutenant Sue Morse, “we reach out to the community and we put ads in newspapers, and we put flyers out around town, and we reach out to our friends and neighbors and anybody who’s interested. We have a lot of students who are interested.” EMT and President Alec Montgomery says that “word of mouth is our best marketing. And I think when people join, they obviously have an interest in being an EMT and serving the community.” He sums it up noting, “it’s a compelling organization to be part of.”
The EMS station is modern, well designed and comfortable. There are sleeping rooms for EMTs on night shifts (with a two minute requirement from bunk to rolling), lots of storage space for equipment and supplies, large bays for the ambulances, training rooms, offices, a full kitchen and a lounging area with a large table for meals and work.
New Canaan EMS has three ambulances, a ‘fly car’ for the paramedic, and another SUV. The ambulances have a lifespan of about nine years, and they are replaced on a staggered three-year basis.
EMTs at Work
EMTs commit to volunteer for sixty hours of active duty every month. These comprise one shift of 6-to-6 (AM to PM, or vice versa) every week on a weekday, and one weekend shift per month. As a practical matter, the volunteers put in many more hours, as there are the various administrative tasks that need to be performed as well.
EMT and Treasurer John Knight notes that the sixty active duty hours per month mean that “you’re usually riding with the same people, and so you get to know those people really well. So the people I’ve been riding with on Thursday day, I’ve been riding with them almost three years. And so you get to be very good friends and there’s a collegiality about the corps as a whole, but also your crew that you work with.”
The first to roll on a call are the two EMTs and their ambulance. EMTs focus on so-called BLS, or Basic Life Saving, tasks. These comprise around 70% of the calls. If the patient’s health issue is more serious, such as shortness of breath or severe chest pains — an ALS, or Advanced Life Saving, event — the paramedic will be called, generally getting to the scene in the ‘fly car’, which is a specially designed SUV with more advanced medical equipment as well as drugs kept in a lockbox. Depending on the situation, the patient could be treated and released on scene, or transported to either Norwalk or Stamford Hospital.
EMS works closely with police, who are usually first to arrive on a scene, and often with the fire department, who get called out not just for fires, but also for many motor vehicle accidents. Police and fire personnel sometimes assist EMS with moving patients depending on the patient’s weight, and the logistics of moving the patient from his or her current location to the ambulance.
Town & Community Support
Treasurer Knight notes that the Town of New Canaan continues to be highly supportive of the EMS. The town owns the land on which the building sits, and paid for part of its construction, the rest coming from community donations and one large testamentary bequest. The town also pays the cost of the paramedic on duty, and for purchase of the ambulances and ‘fly car’, some vehicle maintenance, dispatching, insurance, utilities and some of the equipment and medical supplies. Per the town’s FY2026 budget, nearly $641,000 in financial support is being provided, more than two-thirds of it going to pay for the 24/7 paramedic.
New Canaan EMS also benefits from community donations. These donations cover some of the medical equipment and supplies, plus uniforms, food, some of the cost of vehicle maintenance, continuing education and various other items. Fundraising is low key, with Treasurer Knight noting, “We only do the annual fundraising letter. That’s all we do.” There are some large donations and bequests, and numerous loyal donors who respond to the annual letter. Silver Hill Hospital, which not infrequently calls on EMS for assistance, makes a large donation annually.
“We try to be an efficient user of town resources and of our own resources,” stresses Treasurer Knight.
Community Outreach
2nd Lt. Morse says, “We have a monthly library program that we run. We teach CPR and AED (cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator) use for community members.” There is also outreach to local businesses, schools, the YMCA, scout troops and community events such as May Fair. EMT Kennedy adds, “We try to be visible within the community and let people know that we’re available to them because if you don’t need an ambulance and you’ve never needed one, you don’t know who to call or who’s going to show up. And people are often surprised to learn that we live in the community, we’re volunteers. They’ll be surprised to learn that we’re literally your neighbors.”
The Toughest Calls
Everyone seems to have his or her own list of tough calls. For EMT Kennedy, “pediatric calls are quite challenging because we don’t want to see our little people injured. And when a call comes in for a child in distress, the police are quickly on scene and we are quickly on scene. And often more than just the crew arrives to help. Because when a child is involved in a call, you have more than one patient. You have the parent, grandparent, caregiver, babysitter, whoever it might be.”
It was also noted that the other side of pediatrics is end of life. This is when the EMTs are treating someone who is very elderly and is approaching the end of life, and they’re on scene supporting the family members. Those situations are challenging as well. In addition, EMTs are often called to the same residence multiple times, and the EMTs get to know the patient. For an elderly patient, what starts as engaging, lucid conversations can deteriorate over time, with dementia or other difficulties setting in. This, too, weighs on the EMTs.
New Canaan EMTs have also been called out on suicides. These are particularly tough, with the EMTs having a difficult time talking about it.
Then there are the mental health calls. Says EMT and Capt. Josh Scofield, “There’s not much we can do other than try to make the patient feel safe and comfortable in a psych call, which in a way makes it challenging because the core of our training and everything we did kind of doesn’t come into play. It’s just being a human being and trying to get people to relax and be comfortable for the ride of the hospital.”
In addition, by law, EMTs are mandatory reporters if they suspect abuse or distress. According to Treasurer Knight, “There’s a lot of elderly people living in place in New Canaan. Sometimes the situations that they’re in are not that safe or there may be issues. And so we have a back channel to the health department or the human services department that we can see whether these people are on their watch list, or if not they can have ways in which to do a safety visit.”
Capt. Scofield continues, observing, “And I think a lot of people are struck by it when they start riding is regardless of how wealthy New Canaan is, there are a lot of people that are not living in good situations in this community. And that can be a shock when [they] see that the mandatory report would be things like child abuse, elder abuse, domestic violence.”
And then there’s human trafficking. EMT Kennedy says, “Human trafficking is a significant problem” along Interstate 95 and the Merritt Parkway, with the victims usually being forced into sex work. “We are a heavily populated human trafficking area,” which stretches from Boston down to Philadelphia. The EMTs’ encounters with potential human trafficking victims, which are usually generated by motor vehicle accidents, often result in the EMTs only having contact with a potential victim for perhaps ten minutes. It is during this time that “we can try to get information from them [potential trafficking victims] so that we can report to the police and hopefully get them out of those situations,” continues EMT Kennedy. EMTs receive annual training on how to identify and manage human trafficking.
For example, there is a motor vehicle accident, and the person being treated by the EMTs is the potential trafficking victim. The EMTs speak with the driver, and that person does not know the name of the injured passenger. EMT Kennedy talks about using your ‘Spidey Sense’ in such a situation, and if something does not seem right, the EMTs will investigate further and involve police. Sometimes a potential trafficking victim is “sitting there with their pimp. They know that they’ll be punished or whatever, and they just play. They’re not reaching out for help actively.”
EMT Kennedy concludes, noting that, “I think any call can be challenging depending on what’s going on in your own life. So if you have elderly parents and you’re called to a scene where it’s an elderly individual who … might be at the end of their life, then it can hit the EMT in terms of relating to their own life,” concluding “those are the sorts of calls that may linger in your mind.”
The Uplifting Calls
An example is a person who has psychiatric issues and is often called on by the EMTs. This can be an opportunity because the EMTs might have a relationship with that person, or can talk with him or her calmly, reminding the patient that they’ve been seen before. The EMTs ask the person how he or she is making progress. This can help calm the patient, and assists both the EMTs and the patient in providing effective care.
Treasurer Knight cites the example of an elderly couple. “He’s three times the size as she is, and if he just slips off of the sofa or rolls out of bed and is on the floor, can’t get up, she can’t get him up and she needs help. And so we get called and we’re always happy to go and we check the patient, we make sure that the patient’s fine and then they’re able to sign a refusal form saying ‘I don’t need to be transported.’”
The Volunteer Ethos
It is often observed that New Canaan is run by volunteers: most all elected officials, members of town Boards and Commissions, plus so many people active in local charities. New Canaan EMS is no different. 100% volunteer. But more than that, there’s the 150 hours of training required to get certified as an EMT. Sixty duty hours a month – at minimum. Ongoing training.
All this might seem like a heavy burden, and it can be, especially when handling stressful calls, but New Canaan’s EMTs seem to carry it lightly, supported by what is clearly a tightly knit group with much esprit de corps. Plus the certain knowledge that every call is helping someone in some way. That’s something special.
John J Kriz is a 30+ year New Canaan resident. The views expressed are his own.
