When Marie Holder was not caring for three children at her West Babylon home during the early days of the pandemic, she was caring for the community as an emergency medical technician in the hamlet’s fire department.
So when the 43-year-old resident received a red commemorative COVID-19 pin during a ceremony Wednesday for her service, she appreciated the gesture.
“It’s a thank you,” said Holder, a volunteer with the department for eight years, outside the West Babylon Fire Department headquarters. “We don’t get very much of a thank you. We go, we do our job.”
Holder said her position enables her to “take care of my community.”
Pins similar to the one she received from the Suffolk County Regional EMS Council will be distributed by 18 county lawmakers to volunteer firefighters and emergency medical services volunteers who served during the COVID-19 pandemic.
County Leg. Thomas Donnelly (D-Deer Park) co-sponsored the bill. A retired lieutenant in the New York City Fire Department and a volunteer firefighter in Deer Park, Donnelly said it made sense to “recognize first responders” for the work they’ve done during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Suffolk County Health Commissioner Dr. Gregson Pigott said he began serving in his position in 2020 just as nonessential businesses began to shut down in the county. Pigott said during the “darkest days” of the pandemic, as health professionals were inundated with calls from people complaining about shortness of breath and other virus symptoms, first responders “rose to the occasion, transporting people like never before for a situation we had never seen before.”
“Hopefully better days are ahead,” Pigott said referring to the delta and omicron variants now circulating. “First responders, I appreciate everything you do.”
The outgoing presiding officer of the Suffolk County Legislature, Robert Calarco (D-Patchogue), who is a former member of the county’s EMS Council, said first responders went to work daily when protective personal equipment was limited during the early days of the pandemic.
“The men and women who were the first responders were putting themselves out there, putting their own safety aside without really knowing the full breadth of the hazard they were putting themselves at,” he said, “in order to make sure that they were taking care of the other members of their community.”
Anthony Pellicone, chair of the Suffolk County Regional Emergency Services Council, said he didn’t want to call the pins gifts but instead “true recognition” of the first responders’ “vigilance, their courage and their actions.”
