Ambulance service shows different side

Residents of Mill Pond Health Campus view a program by Operation Life ambulance service.

Seeing an Operation Life ambulance in front of their building is an almost daily occurrence at the Extended Care Facilities in Putnam County.

Operation Life does almost daily transports for non-emergency appointments and testing for all the Extended Care Facilities.

But their mission in the weeks before Christmas were different. Operation Life staff created an audio-visual presentation on the history of Christmas traditions, memories of Christmas past, and also the different other Holiday celebrations for this time of year (including Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanza).

"Our crews see the residents of the extended care facilities on a regular basis and even grow attached to many of them," says Operation Life Director Kraig Kinney. "This is a means for our crews to show how much we care for these residents even in a non-transport situation."

Kinney indicated that he had the idea for a couple of years but had difficulty finding time to implement it. This year, he was able to use two Greencastle High School interns at Operation Life, Nathaniel Lien and Haylee Query, to complete the specific program.

Besides the presentation, Operation Life is providing Christmas carnations to each of the residents that attended the programs. Silver Bell Flowers of Cloverdale agreed to also donate a Holiday bouquet to each facility to honor the Holiday season.

"This was a simple way for us to give something back and recognize those residents during the Holiday Season," Kinney says.