Indiana Ambulance Association

View the Press Release for the SBA’s Phoenix Award.  The deadline has technically expired, but SBA has extended it to Feb. 10 to provide a name for nomination. After the nomination, the nominator may need to be involved in putting together a packet to support the nominee’s efforts. Local level nominees seem to receive the best response from the awards committee.

I do not see any deadlines here, but it looks like the 2010 winners will be announced for 2009 efforts.

You can send the nominations to me, or to the contact in the press release. If you send directly there, please copy me so we’ll be in the loop and can help tell their stories.

Here’s an excerpt from the press release about two of the 2009 winners:

“Last September heavy rains caused Indiana’s Little Calumet River to overflow in  Munster, damaging 1,200 homes, many with eight feet of sewage water filling entire basements.   Once the floodwaters receded, Amanda Baltensberger—a mother of four, college student and co-owner of a printing business—borrowed a golf cart, grabbed her best friend and prepared meals to deliver to the dazed disaster survivors.

In the days that followed, Baltensberger recruited 70 volunteers and set up relief centers using  borrowed tents and picnic tables.  The centers became clearinghouses for recovery information, meals, cleaning supplies and moral support.  Weeks later, she threw a block party—complete with live music, food and games for the kids—to uplift town’s spirits…”

“When heavy spring rains washed away the remains of a harsh winter’s 200 inches  of snow in Aroostook County, Maine, the flooding St. John and Fish rivers surged at their junction—Fort Kent. As the floodwaters rose beyond the 25-foot flood stage on May 1, 2008, Town Manager Donald Guimond ordered mandatory evacuations, while city workers built temporary dikes to protect the downtown area.

Thanks,

John Erickson