Area couple volunteer time and provide donor support to regional EMS programs.

Tom and Laurie Burkholder are long-time and passionate supporters of Susquehanna Regional Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Tom is a member of the Eagles Mere Volunteer Ambulance Association, where he is currently an emergency services technician (EMT). He also wears the hats of ambulance driver and ambulance association secretary, and is a member of the Eagles Mere Fire Company. Laurie is also a volunteer who gives her time to their local county food bank and other nonprofits. Supporting their community is simply part of their DNA, and there is a special place for EMS in their hearts.

“The EMS team is often the first line to the emergency department, which around here is sometimes a 30- or 40-minute ride away from the scene,” says Tom. “We service a large geographic area. Time is critical.” He is keenly aware of the importance of well-trained EMTs and well-equipped ambulances.

Becoming Passionate EMS Supporters

“If you had asked me five years ago if this was what I would be doing, I would have said you were sorely mistaken,” says Tom with a chuckle. A lawyer by training, he sought to do something meaningful in retirement. When a friend asked him to become a driver for the local volunteer ambulance corps, he decided to try it out. The EMS experience has turned out to be a extremely rewarding to him.

“You can get a call at three in the morning and have to respond just as quickly as if it were 10 in the morning,” says Tom. His ambulance unit responds to an average of 45 ambulance calls a year, which are mostly medical calls and some trauma events. Their service area includes the borough of Eagles Mere and Shrewsbury Township in Sullivan County, and they also assist neighboring municipalities on a mutual-aid basis dispatched through the Lycoming County Communications Center. “We are all small volunteer EMS programs in the same boat, and we help each other out,” he says.

Laurie says she is proud of the good work Tom and his volunteer EMS team do. “I see the need for emergency medical services in this rural area, and it is so different than suburban and urban locations,” she says. “I try to be a support system for Tom and his EMS friends. I know what they do is so important.” A call could involve anything from a farm accident or motor vehicle crash to a heart attack, fire or even a natural disaster. “You just never know.”

Impactful Gifts to the EMS Program

Before retiring, Laurie made and sold handcrafted jewelry as a business for nearly 30 years. Tom is retired from the Trust Department at Woodlands Bank of Williamsport, where he served as vice president and department manager. They have two sons and four grandchildren. Theirs is a full life made even richer through local volunteering. They see how their donations through the Susquehanna Health Foundation positively impact their community, and that gives them great satisfaction, too.

“The Burkholder family are wonderful supporters of the EMS program who really understand the needs of our sprawling, rural community,” says Jeff Myers, DO, EMS medical director, emergency services, UPMC in North Central Pa. “Their heartfelt generosity has made it possible for our EMS program to help so many more people.”

Some of the EMS needs Tom and Laurie have supported with their donations include:

• Surgical Field Kits: Also called “go bags,” these kits contain medical instruments and supplies for emergency physicians and paramedics that are specific to the kinds of calls the EMS teams see in rural Sullivan and Lycoming Counties.
• SANE Training: Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) training is specialized education in the care of patients who have been sexually assaulted, including how to collect evidence and specimens.
• Fluid Warmers: These portable warmers can be used to warm blood or other fluids before they are administered to patients to prevent hypothermia.

Support for the Nurse-Family Partnership

Tom and Laurie have been donors to the Foundation for more than 16 years. In addition to the needs of the EMS, the Burkholders are generous supporters of the Foundation’s Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP), a community health program that helps transform the lives of women who are pregnant with their first child. “This is such a great program doing amazing work that flies under the radar a lot of the time,” says Laurie. In addition to donating money, the Burkholders have volunteered at the annual Nurse-Family Partnership picnic.

Championing the Benevolent Care Fund

The Burkholders also contribute to the Benevolent Care Fund, which provides financial support to patients in need, so they can afford the medication, travel costs, and other expenses that can create economic barriers to necessary treatment and care. “The Foundation told us about what the Benevolent Care Fund does, and it really aligned with our values and desire to help those in need,” says Laurie.

Laurie and Tom get a sense of great reward from volunteering and providing financial support to address the urgent health and medical needs in their community. They see the challenges of providing EMS and other health care programs to the large rural territory in which they live, and they are doing something about it. “The people of this community are wonderful and deserve the best medical access possible,” says Tom. “Laurie and I are really proud to help the Foundation and UPMC deliver that.”