Emergency responders continue their committment to area amidst worries about numbers, sustainability
EMR. EMT. EMS. No one outside of the lifesaving loop really knows the difference, but the important thing to remember is, there are dozens of trained professionals in the local area who are going to be there for you during an emergency.
And next week is a big one for them, as National EMS Week 2026 runs from May 17–23, with the theme “Improving Outcomes, Together,” focusing on collaboration, innovation, and the role of EMS in community health.
“It’s important to promote what the departments are doing — and the ambulance department is doing — to serve the community,” said Jason Kaare, an EMT in Balaton. “We provide literal life-saving care to the citizens of Balaton and the surrounding area.”
In 1974, President Gerald Ford authorized EMS Week to celebrate EMS professionals and the important work they do in our nation’s communities. National Emergency Medical Services Week brings together local communities and medical personnel to honor the dedication of those who provide the day-to-day lifesaving services of medicine’s frontline.
EMS Week is presented by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) in partnership with the National Associations of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT). Together, NAEMT and ACEP lead annual EMS Week activities. These organizations are working to ensure that the important contributions of EMS professionals in safeguarding the health, safety and well-being of their communities are fully celebrated and recognized.
Balaton currently has seven EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) and six EMRs (Emergency Medical Responders). Kaare considers those numbers small compared to what he wishes Balaton had available.
They cover a wide range in the Balaton area, and also transport for Russell and Garvin, which has only First Responders, who cannot transport patients.
“If it’s a situation where the patient is more critical or we need additional help, we usually call either Tracy or Marshall for Advanced Life Support with one of their paramedics that can give medications or care above the scope of what an EMT can do.”
EMTs, who get paid little — $3 an hour on call during the day or weekend and $2 during weeknights, as well as $30 for each call they go on — also respond to every fire call.
“It’s a little something, but you can’t live off it,” Kaare said. “It’s a supplement. Two people have to be on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year — it’s a minimum of an EMT and an EMR … you have to have two people respond to a call.”
That is why Kaare would like to see more people become EMTs or EMRs.
“We could use a few more people to help cover that, especially during the day,” he said. “It can be challenging; if people don’t have the opportunity to work from home … most people are leaving Balaton for their day job.”
The challenge becomes finding the right people. This isn’t just a side job, per se, where a crew can grab just anyone off the street.
“They have to have the drive and motivation to do this, and they need to be able to mentally and physically be able to handle the stuff we do,” said Kaare. “It’s not for everyone.”
And when one considers all the training that goes into become an EMT or EMR, that limits the pool of potential candidates ever further. Kaare did his training in Tracy; he trained for two nights a week from October-May, which is most of a typical school year.
“I did that my first year of teaching in Tracy; I didn’t have kids yet and I knew I had to get through that before we had kids,” said Kaare, who said becoming an EMR was never on his radar when he lived in Waconia. “I had a friend on the (fire) department who encouraged me to think about become an EMR. I figured this would be a good way to be a part of something.”
The Balaton crew covers all of Balaton as well as assists First Responders in Ruthton, Russell, Garvin and Shetek.
People like Kaare and Tracy’s Wendy Gleis are few and far between, so much so in fact that Gleis has some major concerns when it comes to filling these important roles in the future “It’s not a field for everybody,” said Gleis, and EMT for 24 years. “It takes special people who can handle the situations that we’re put in. It’s not just treating the victim, it’s treating the family, being there for support.”
But when it comes to the kind of support these care-givers provide, the future is a cloudy one, Gleis said. Because people who go into the emergency response field don’t grow on trees, she wonders — and worries — about what crews will look like in 10 or 15 years.
Currently, Tracy employees 15 EMTs and four First Responders (all of the town’s firefighters are First Responders as well) and two paramedics. It’s up to those people to man Tracy’s coverage area, which spans from Tracy, south to the north side of Lake Shetek, to 3 miles north of Amiret and 3 miles east of Walnut Grove.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen, because we have so many on our crew that have been on for so long; we don’t have the young people stepping up to fill roles. It’s a crisis.”
For the time being, there are fewer worries since a number of EMTs have been around long enough to be considered veterans — people like Gleis, Charlie Snyder, Charlie DeSchepper, Denny Alexander, who is retired but still does transfers.
“That’s another thing — people don’t want to do transfers, because you have to put about four, four-and-a-half hours in it and people can’t afford to give up that much time,” said Gleis. “Denny’s been a Godsend; Dale and Amber (Johnson) have been on a long time. We’re at the point now where everybody kind of has their own role.”
