COLRAIN — Fellow emergency responders wanted to surprise Kevin Worden II with his EMT of the Year Award from the Franklin County Emergency Medical Technicians Association, but their plan was foiled when an ambulance call came during the meeting assembled for the presentation.
Worden heard the call and immediately headed for the ambulance, says Robert Manners, president of the Franklin County EMT Association.
“We told him, ‘You don’t need to go this time; someone else will take it’ — because there was a room full of EMTs willing to go,” said Manners. But Worden kept going for the ambulance. Finally, the others had to tell him he needed to stay for the meeting, to accept an award.
“We had to pull him off the ambulance,” Manners joked. “He’s from a family of dedicated EMTs. His whole family has been involved for decades.”
Worden, 30, has been an emergency medical technician and Colrain firefighter since he was 19.
Worden said that he had no plans of becoming an EMT, until a friend, who was taking the training, talked him into it.
When Worden was growing up, there wasn’t a formal “junior firefighter” program at the station, but both of Worden’s parents were firefighters. Worden is now a lieutenant in the department, and his father, also named Kevin Worden, is deputy chief. His mother is an EMT and firefighter. Worden’s grandfather was also a firefighter.
And now — when Worden isn’t on call for Colrain — he works full-time for MedCare Emergency Health Inc. ambulance service.
“I nominated Kevin for his dedication,” said David Zamojski of South County EMS. “He is one of those of the younger generation who has stepped up to the plate. His care is extraordinary. He’s compassionate, understanding. And whenever they want him to do something in Colrain, he’s always there. He’s a caring young man who takes is responsibility beyond his role.”
According to Manners, Worden was nominated for his “ongoing commitment to emergency service and continued involvement, going to calls, day-in day-out, as well as providing service for MedCare.”
“He’s a low key, behind-the-scenes, everyday hero that continually does his job, putting others’ welfare above his own,” Manners says of Worden. “He’s just one of the good guys that does his job. He wouldn’t have sought the recognition. He just does what he does.”
Manners said Worden is following in the tradition of many dedicated EMTs who’ve received the award. And the award isn’t given out every year, he remarked. To be nominated, “You’ve got to have the drive, the commitment, the history of consistent EMS work,” he said. “We look at the whole picture, rather than at an isolated event.”