Anonymous gifts, grants will help Washington, Kansas ease entry to EMS education and service

WASHINGTON, Kan. - Responding to a shortage of first responders, donors in North Central Kansas have stepped in to help make the process of joining an ambulance crew a little easier.

Considering costs of classes, testing and certifications, it can cost close to $2,000 for someone seeking to join an ambulance crew. And the pool of people who can afford the cost or the time required to volunteer for this service is pretty shallow.

That's why this month some donors in Washington, Kansas have stepped in to ease that entry for prospective EMTs.

"All of our county ambulance services are short-staffed, as are much of the volunteer services around the country. And they thought that by contributing some dollars towards education, they could help increase the number of volunteer personnel we have available," said Caroline Scoville, the city of Washington's full-time EMT who leads the classes to educate new EMTs in Washington County and beyond.

An existing grant can help to cover the cost of EMS education, and the anonymous donors - from a "supportive, well-established family" in Washington - have committed an additional $750 for anyone who completes EMS training and works for a crew in Washington County for at least a year - that could be the crew in Clifton, Linn, or Washington itself. The donors have pledged a grand total of $10,000 lifetime.

The ambulance crews would request a reimbursement from the donors' fund anytime a local student signs up for the course - that student would receive up to $750 to help cover their testing, licensing and other fees, a total that could truly make a difference for people considering whether it's worth their time to sign up to participate in a service that pays very little, and often not at all.

"That extra funding that we’re receiving from those donors is going to be a huge help in reliving the financial burden on the ambulance services themselves, as well as the people who are donating their time to go to class so they can become certified and can then volunteer," said Scoville. "All of our people have full-time jobs, and families, so relying on people to provide emergency medical service is a huge undertaking, and finding people who have time available to volunteer for our service can be challenging. [This funding] helps take the burden off the local ambulance services, and help provide dollars to finish out their education."

With this additional funding secured, now the hope is to eventually advance this operation from a team of volunteers to full-time first responder status. Plenty of other crews in this part of the state are built that way already, and it's something the crew in Washington, alongside local and county government, has been workshopping for the last few years.

"Because volunteers are so hard to find, and none of us is getting any younger, eventually we anticipate the need that we will have to have a full-time service where staff is paid to be in-house, full-time, and will have that as their main place of employment. But that takes time," Scoville said.

The next class will be held here in the Washington fire hall, running from January to May. There are typically around eight people in a class in a given year, but Scoville said she's already received interest from around 15 people considering signing up for the class in 2026, some local and some from as far south as Manhattan. 

Factoring in classes, testing and other administrative items, it can take a couple of months to become a fully certified EMT. But thanks to this funding, now the hope is that by the middle of next year, there will be at least a dozen new first responders ready to join a force somewhere in the state.