The KPATC Foundation volunteers and the Plush family were honored to meet the dedicated 9-1-1 professionals at Pinellas County Emergency Communications Center on December 26 to share Kyle’s story and the importance of always Answering The Call To Be Your Best Self Every Day. We were delighted to share four KPATC Foundation Challenge Coins with MacKenzie Espinoza, her supervisor, Brian Gallaher, and co-workers Arianna and John, for their amazing example of BEING THEIR BEST SELF when they rescued a fisherman who was capsized in the ocean at Indian Rocks Beach, FL last March 2019. The fisherman called 9-1-1 that day from his cell phone after his kayak flipped and a storm was blowing in. He needed immediate help or he would drown. The Pinellas County 9-1-1 center was able to save this fisherman’s life by using their quick-thinking and calm reassuring voices to keep him on the phone and help him stay positive and focused while they tracked his pin-point accurate location out in the ocean by using RapidSOS technology. After meeting the director of this center, we are not surprised by this story – this center is continuously improving to save lives. Thank you Dawn Shontz and Jim Fogarty for the tour of your center. We look forward to keeping in touch to hear more life-saving stories and 9-1-1 improvements we can pass along to other centers we visit nationwide.
Florida 9-1-1 Center Visit
