One of our own needs our help

Anyone ever been to [url]http://www.defrance.org/?[/url] "The EMS House of DeFrance"??? Well, the site admin there, Valerie DeFrance, needs our help.

A little online EMS history for you. Valerie DeFrance has been maintaining an EMS presence online for decades. From Ambulance Driver (Kelly Grayson):

Before there was a JEMS Online or an EMS1 or an EMT City or EMT Life, there was the EMS House of DeFrance, one of the most comprehensive EMS resources on the web. And the person who ran it, my friend Valerie DeFrance, did it for years via a 56k modem from Hope, AK.

I don't believe I've ever met Valerie in person, but I can attest to her impact on our community. She was a driving force behind the ill-fated Prehospital Perspective magazine... an EMS publication BY EMS providers, FOR EMS providers, prior to the blossoming of the Blogosphere. She was a poster on the Yahoo EMT group (where I met some of you before I found this site), and many items posted here as news articles have been found through her site.

Here's the info on what's going on, and what you can do to help, from Of Mule Dung and Ash:

Let's give Valerie a hand
If you don't know Valerie DeFrance you're missing an important piece of EMS history. Valerie was an Internet pioneer, building and hosting dozens of EMS educational websites over the years and she still maintains the EMS news and education site, the EMS House of DeFrance. Valerie is one of our most important EMS dinosaurs. Over the years she has offered her expertise and knowledge to anyone needing a hand, and doing so more often than not without charge. Valerie has always been a giver... never a taker.
...
Valerie lives 75 miles from the oncology clinic where she goes for her treatments. The ongoing treatments have left her unable to work and therefore without income. Just the simple act of buying gas for these trips back and forth has become problematic and is an immediate need. In the long run there will be those substantial medical bills to pay, but right now we just need to get her to the clinic and back. We need to kick in and help her get past this hurdle.

The goal right now is $10,000. As of this post, it's over $1800 collected. There is a widget below you can click on:

I've also started a thread on this over at EMTLife.com, if anyone wants to join in.

Oh, and if you remember Prehospital Perspective, check out [URL="http://bluetoad.com/publication/?i=102496&pre=1"]Interventions, a similar concept being published by some friends of mine.[/URL]

Life

I always want to blog, but when I sit down in front of the computer, I manage to do everything BUT write the posts that are circulating in my head. I think many of us have these problems.

I find myself stuck in a rut right now. I’m honestly not sure where I want to go in life right now, so I’m comfortable maintaining my current existence. I’m looking at starting graduate school in the fall (MPH), because I don’t have a compelling reason to NOT do so. I question if I could truly be happy working in a cubical, writing health policy. On the flip side, If I do run that option out, then there’s the potential to actually make REAL change happen for EMS on a larger-scale level than I could ever hope to enact as a street paramedic – so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

At the same time, I’m also looking for full-time employment, and I’m open to relocating (probably staying in the mid-Atlantic area to be close to family/friends, though).

I’m also sitting on a couple of things I need to do in the next week, the biggest being that I need to complete my protocol review for my Maryland Paramedic certification.

So... that's where I am this week.