Port Alberni’s BC Ambulance station took a moment this week to recognize the women working in their community. March 8 marked International Women’s Day across the globe.
Station 124 in Port Alberni has a total of 13 women working at the station, bringing more than 95 years of combined paramedic service to the community. The women gathered outside of West Coast General Hospital on Sunday, March 7 to take a picture for International Women’s Day.
The group includes both part- and full-time employees, some of whom also have roles as search and rescue volunteers, fire department volunteers, teachers and nurses.
”Thirteen of us at one station sends a pretty powerful message,” said Deb Roberts, a B.C. ambulance service paramedic who has worked for two decades at the Port Alberni station. When she started 21 years ago there was a point where she was the only female paramedic in the city, she recalled.
“They have boundless amounts of empathy and compassion and have worked tirelessly during a pandemic and an opioid crisis,” Roberts said of her female colleagues. “They care immensely for their patients and support each other daily. They should be proud of the job they do everyday and know that they are amazing role models to little girls and boys everywhere.”