NTW Celebrated

It’s National Public Safety Telecommunicator Week, and it’s being publicized by many newspapers and TV stations across the country. The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times ran a story about “the voices of calm” in their city, and included a photo of dispatcher Aneal Seepersad–which unfortunately looks like a mug shot. Read the short story here. Other stories:

• Tampa (Fla.) dispatcher Cheryl Richter, who helped a woman deliver her own baby
• Milton (Mass.) dispatcher Brian Foley, who helped a choking girl
• Pasadena (Calif.) dispatcher Cindy Perez will bee honored for her on-going work
• Mass. State Police dispatcher Patrick Briody is honored for his handling of a hostage situation
• Tampa (Fla.) Fire-Rescue dispatcher Cheryl Richter wasn’t honored, but contributed to NTW by helping deliver a baby
• Blount County (Tenn.) dispatchers are spotlight in a TV report
• Ipswich (Mass.) dispatcher David Irvine was honored for his handling of a 911 caller who didn’t know his location
• Six year-old Dante Parks dialed 911 for help, answered by Bangor (Maine) dispatcher Ryan Welch
• Isanti County (Minn.) dispatchers are profiled by the local newspaper
• Ironically, San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom visited the police-fire comm center during NTW, but only in response to a critical newspaper series pointing out delayed EMS response times
• Elgin (Ill.) dispatchers were profiled by the local newspaper
• Loudon County (Virg.) dispatcher Joyce Thompson is a 30-year veteran, according to a story in the Washington Post