PITTSTON \u2014 First responders from throughout the area and supporters will rally this weekend behind one of the region\u2019s longest-serving paramedics who is battling lung cancer.<\/p>\n
The benefit for Emmett Thomas, a captain with the Greater Pittston Regional Ambulance, Medic 29, will be held Saturday afternoon at the Jenkins Twp. firehouse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe ask you to walk a mile in his boots and consider what your needs might be should you receive such a life-altering diagnosis,\u201d the organization wrote in a flyer promoting the event.<\/p>\n
The event, which features basket raffles and a 50\/50 drawing, runs noon to 6 p.m. Cost is $20 and includes food and soda.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmmett is probably the longest-tenured paramedic in Luzerne County. It\u2019s a field where burnout is very high. Typically, people don\u2019t last this long,\u201d said Mike Lombardo, vice president of the ambulance association, longtime colleague of Thomas and attorney for the Hourigan, Kluger and Quinn law firm. \u201cSince he has been active so long, he\u2019s a guy beloved by our staff. He has decades of experience. In a field that is so high energy and stressful, he is a calming presence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas, 58, has a tumor in his lung that currently is inoperable, Lombardo said. While he hasn\u2019t been able to work in the field, Thomas has continued to work documenting the department\u2019s data collection of incidents, Lombardo said.<\/p>\n
The department\u2019s advertisement about the benefit calls Thomas a \u201cFriend to many. Mentor to all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomas is a long-time instructor for the paramedic program at Luzerne County Community College.<\/p>\n
\u201cCaptain Emmett Thomas has dedicated his life to serving others with extraordinary skill, compassion, and humility. Countless paramedic students at Luzerne County Community College and countless families throughout our region are better today because of Emmett,\u201d college president John Yudichak said in a a statement. \u201cNow, it is our turn to stand by him. Luzerne County Community College is proud to support this community effort and we encourage everyone to come together in support of Emmett and his family during his fight. He has always answered the call for us\u2014today we answer the call for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frank Cawley, a firefighter and EMT from the Pittston area, said he\u2019s helped collect raffle basket donations for the benefit far and wide, from Hazleton to Tunkhanock.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s outstanding. He\u2019s probably one of the best paramedics around.\u00a0 A great teacher and mentor to all. I worked with him a lot,\u201d Cawley said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping the event is going to be a big success.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSTON \u2014 First responders from throughout the area and supporters will rally this weekend behind one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[4486,182,803,139,28,2485,178,180,179,802],"class_list":["post-33300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-jenkins-township","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pittston","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-cvc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}