Wintergreen Rescue Professionals Honored

Sept 27, 2015 - Last week we sent members of our staff to Virginia Beach to see how they fared in competition. We don't always participate because quite frankly it's a bit costly. That said, in those years when it feels as if our Technical-Rescue-Team is hitting on all cylinders and they practice hard, we send them to see how they do. While they're there, the same group of people compete in as many competitions as possible.

A lot of rescue agencies from all over Virginia spend the entire year sharpening their skills for the Va Beach competition. To ride out of town with several trophies is a pretty big deal.

We competed in the following:

Vertical Rescue (Rope Rescue) Vehicle Extrication - Heavy (Working off of Squad 1) Vehicle Extrication - Modular (Working off of 178) Advanced Life Support Basic Life Support EVOC - Instructor Category (Driving Competition) EVOC - Non-Instructor Category (Driving Competition) Our website was also submitted for judgement. I'm very pleased to say we won 1st place in this category. In this day and age, agencies live and die by their websites and I have long thought ours is outstanding. To be clear, I have nothing to do with this. Michael Barber maintains the site. Mike Riddle is responsible for the complete overhaul years ago which brought us to the point we are today. Thanks to both Mikes for the wonderful tool our website has become.

You will see that we're the "runners up" in the Vertical Rescue category. There's more to the story. We were beaten by Westvaco Rescue, which the career department responsible for the huge paper mill near Covington. We were 40 seconds faster than their team, however, they scored one more points than we did. Westvaco has been the powerhouse in Vertical Rescue for decades and there's certainly no shame in standing next to them on a podium.

As most of you know, we have a strong alliance with Waynesboro First Aid Crew and Staunton-Augusta Rescue Squad. WFAC now has the state champion Vehicle Extrication (Heavy) team and SARS has the state champion Vehicle Extrication (Modular) team. Additionally, Kim Craig from SARS was elected President and will lead the VAVRS organization in 2016. Congrats to both agencies. Congrats also to Steve Southworth for completing two terms representing our local District.

Our teams finished each category as follows:

1st place - Website of the Year - Michael Barber, Mike Riddle

2nd place - Vertical Rescue Contest - Nick, Mike, Jeremiah, Ryan, Eric, Caleb, Tim - Alt.

2nd place - ALS Contest ...... this one is especially impressive - Jeremiah, Mike, Ryan, Eric, Caleb - Alt.

3rd place - EVOC instructor (Mike)

4th place - Extrication Contest (Heavy) - Nick, Mike, Caleb, Tim, Eric (Alt).

6th place - Extrication Contest (Ambulance) - Trey, Ryan, Jeremiah

8th place - EVOC instructor - (Tim, w/ Riverheads Fire Dept)

10th place - BLS Contest - Nick, Eric, Trey, Tim (Alt).

14th place - EVOC non-instructor - Jeremiah