Beaver Island Michigan

This a topic worthy of its own thread.
And I'll start with a few points.
When you join BIEMS it is total immertion. To get-up to speed you must learn the language, the culture, technigues, equipment and more of Emergency Transport. If you have a dayjob, it can be tough and your homelife, also, may suffer.
Then there is the risk. Every run. Every flight.
As amember of BIEMS in the late 80s and early 90s (the stone age) I learned funding was paramount. Without financial support, we were't going anywhere. There was many a "dog and pony show" at the townships' meetiings and they came thru every time.
Of course, there has been many changes since then and I am not up to speed, but have you ever seen the "Hundred with a Heart" plaque at the library? Donations, contributions have always been a part of BIFD and BIEMS funding. Is there a BIEMS auxilliary? Social Events? Raffles? CPR classes?


William A. Markey

Emergency Medical Transport as a business needs a volumn of runs and payments by transportees and/or insurance companies to make it profitable. Beaver Island doesn't have that volumn, yet, the need for livng-wage professionals and volunteers will always be with us. Billings, donations, but especialy the people of St. James by tax-levy and Peaine Twp Board by matching from its General fund have made BIEMS what it is today, fully integrated with, and as fast as posible to, mainland Hospitals.
The BIFD and the BIEMS are the best amongst us, and we should feel as proud of them as ourselves for what we have...

Just some thoughts. What do you think?

Thanks for starting this thread. My guess is that the politics of the next month will not allow many posts on this until after the election. I have lots of stuff that I'd like to share, but this next month through the election will be used to get sound bites out and try to catch a vote or two.

Perhaps you could post the story of your work to get the communications tower on Kings Highway put up along with all the contributions given to get it done. This is the kind of history that people need to know before they allow it to be torn down. Bill, thank you for your contributions to EMS on the island. I am serio

us about telling some of these stories because many people don't know anything about the history and how hard some of us had to work to just barely get by.

Joe Moore