When the Richland County Emergency Management Agency retired one of its ambulances, former EMA director Mike Bailey wanted to put it to good use.
“It sat there, it wasn’t getting used and it was time to move it on,” he said.
Bailey, an advisor at Pioneer Career and Technology Center, approached the school to see if students would benefit from the vehicle. After gaining approval from county commissioners, local officials presented the vehicle to students and staff Wednesday afternoon.
Pioneer offers more than 35 career training programs for high school juniors and seniors from 14 school districts. Students gain hands-on experience through career labs.
The ambulance will be used as a command center for students in the criminal justice and homeland security programs, who volunteer to run special details as part of their hands-on educational experience.
“Typically, we’ll have two or three students that lead that particular detail and we allow them to take command on it so they get an idea of what it’s going to be like,” said Eric Winbigler, who leads the school’s homeland security program.
The details often put students in charge of traffic and crowd control at parades, cross country meets and other public events throughout Richland and Crawford counties. The school provided nearly 1,000 volunteer hours last year.
“Whether it’s (directing) traffic or keeping kids out of a parade route, we’re always doing things to try to better our communities and that’s really what these students are trained to do,” said Dan George, a criminal justice instructor at Pioneer.
Winbigler said, “(The ambulance) will help tremendously. It’ll be a place where students can come in and get warm, where we can store our equipment and charge our radios.
“I don’t know of any other school in the state that has a command center,” Winbigler said.
Drake Sanders, a senior at Crestview enrolled in Pioneer’s homeland security program, said the command center will allow students to work more efficiently.
“We just kind of find random spots to set up (during details). Having (the command center) will give us a nice permanent spot that everybody can find,” he explained.
Shelves will be installed for equipment, including vests, cones, barricades, radios and winter weather gear. Winbigler hopes to debut the ambulance during the students’ detail at the J.C. Gorman Wrestling Invitational next month at Mansfield Senior High School.
“Other than just putting in some racks…and re-lettering the vehicle itself, it is ready to go,” he said. “It is one of the cleanest vehicles of its age I have seen in years. It was well taken care of.”
This isn’t the first time the ambulance has been donated. According to Rick Evans, the new EMA director, the 1993 Ford model was originally owned by Jefferson Township and donated to the county EMA in 2008.
After the presentation, students swarmed to the vehicle for a closer look.
“We have a cruiser that we practice driving here, but it’s in pretty bad shape. We don’t always know if it’s going to run,” said Brandon Damron, a Galion senior and homeland security student. “This is a lot nicer and it’ll help us out when we’re out in the public.”
