A great write up from the Holland Sentinel. We are so proud to work with great people like EV+, Dan Sun, and Wendy Dawson of the Antrim Township Ambulance Authority.
“Two local businesses were inspired to join forces in wrapping ambulances to support the communities they serve and raise awareness toward the impact emergency personnel have on the people they serve.”
By Curtis. Wildfong
@hollandsentinel.com, (616) 546-4279
“Your life is our life.”
Not only is that a phrase gracing the side of a newly revamped ambulance, but it’s the way of life for emergency personnel.
It’s that motto — that the lives of those in the community mean everything to emergency personnel — that inspired two local businesses to join forces in wrapping ambulances to support the communities they serve and raise awareness toward the impact emergency personnel have on the people they serve.
The imagery on the ambulance, which was restored by emergency vehicle distributor Emergency Vehicles Plus in Holland, shows the hardships emergency personnel experience while helping people during the most trying of times.
On one side, a firefighter bows his head as he holds a child’s toy. On another, a paramedic leans up against the interior wall of an ambulance with the cluttered remnants of medical devices at his feet.
“The pictures I chose really show an expression of how we feel after a call,” said Adam Thompson, a firefighter with Zeeland Fire Rescue. He is also “lead guru” of his newly founded business Graphix Gurus. “I’ve been on scenes and I can close my eyes and still see people’s faces.”
The images are of actual photos taken by Canadian photographer Dan Sun.
Thompson has been installing graphics, the more typical kind, on ambulances for some time and has worked with EV Plus.
When the vehicle distributor was approached by Antrim Township Ambulance Authority in Shiawassee County about an idea, Thompson was brought on board.
Wendy Dawson, system director of the Antrim Township Ambulance Authority, said her agency had “a dream” of coming up with a concept for their ambulances that would show support for the community.
After contacting several vendors regarding powerful imagery on ambulances, she said she got a lot of cold shoulders.
“I got a lot of ‘you don’t want to do that’ or ‘you don’t want to go that far with it,’” Dawson said. That’s when she contacted EV Plus, who said they had the perfect graphic designer for the project.
“I talked with Adam for like 15 minutes and he just got it. He said, ‘We are going to bring this to life,’” Dawson said.
A year later, the ambulance authority now has five ambulances fully wrapped with images raising awareness for heart health, cancer, stroke health and more.
Dawson said the ambulances have been a great tool in educating the community on different aspects of health and raise awareness of how to identify symptoms of major health events.
It’s also gotten a lot of support from the community.
“We get requests for parades or we get requests from schools,” she said. “We even get requests from hospitals for patients wanting them for transports.”
And that’s the whole point, Thompson said.
“Even with the chaos going on right now with people not thinking police or firefighters care,” he said. “We do care about our communities. That’s why we came up with that saying, ‘Your life is our life,’ because that’s what we live and breathe each day.”
As of now, the ambulances in Antrim Township are the only ones the group has wrapped that are currently in service. The ambulance showing support for emergency personnel is still being finished. The group has plans for displaying it at Michigan’s Fireman’s Memorial Festival in Roscommon Sept. 15-18.
Thompson said the hope is that it will be put into service soon. He said they also plan to do many more wraps in the future.
— Follow this reporter on Twitter @SentinelCurtis.
Recent Comments