Empress Fleet Director Kyle Stevens was recently a special guest at the For Paul Foundation’s 7th Annual Hero’s Dinner and Scholarship Awards held on May 16 in Weston, Fla.
He accepted a picture of the refurbished ambulance that Empress had donated, which sat outside the venue during the event, which also included the awarding of scholarships to people interested in going into EMS fields.
Stevens said his connection to the cause began with his parts vendor, Mike Kramer, who was a cousin of Dawn Witherspoon, founder of the For Paul Foundation.
Mike Kramer told me about who they are and what they do.
“There was a death in their family. It was his aunt, and they hadn’t talked in 20 years. He came to me and said ‘You guys have ambulances. I just talked to my cousin who has started a foundation.’ ”
He said the donation didn’t work out at once.
“The first ambulance I tried to donate fell through, and I felt like this had to go through and got it all running. I wanted to help. I didn’t think it was a crazy big deal. I know it helps; they they had said it changes the outreach.
“We ended up getting a Montifiore truck, and we reached out and let her know we had the bus. Her husband Paul had worked with FDNY, so he had ties based on that.”
He said they initially planned to have it towed to Florida, but things changed.
“We started bringing it in, replacing some tires, and they ended up coming to New York,” to drive it to Florida.
He said they are planning to return to Empress next year with the totally refurbished unit.
“They go country-wide, and they have a website where we are listed as their top sponsor.”
Stevens added there are plans to aid the Foundation with scholarship contributions from Empress’s sister PatientCare Company, the School of EMS.
“They gave out probably 15 different scholarships, and they have agencies that represent them,” he said. “We are looking to talk because they provide scholarships, and getting the School of EMS involved so we can all benefit. We’re looking to see if we can make it into a scholarship.
“Going down there put a lot of perspective into what they do and what that ambulance is to them,” he said, noting it is used for things like transporting gear to first responders handling natural disasters such as hurricanes.
“They can actually get things to people. They’ve done all the hurricane responses. Before, they didn’t have emergency-style vehicles, but now they can get through.
“They needed the tools to do that, and now they have them,” he said.
