10/3/2008
MICHAEL STRAND
Ordinarily, bringing an ambulance, police car or fire truck to an elementary school career day would make you the center of attention.
“We don’t stand a chance,” chuckled Jamie Welsch, a paramedic with the Salina Fire Department, as he eyed the National Guard Blackhawk helicopter that had landed a few minutes earlier on the grounds of Meadowlark Elementary.
But as he and emergency medical technician Brian Barber started talking to the kindergartners in Margy Hogarty’s class, the helicopter was all but ignored — and then another one flew over and circled the school.
“We’re on the job for 24 hours straight,” Welsch explained to the children gathered on the grass Friday morning at the back of the ambulance. “We eat there, we sleep there, and if somebody needs help, even in the middle of the night, we go out and help them.”


Read more about career day in Saturday's Salina Journal.