Searcy EMT honored as best in the state

Misty West of Searcy, an EMT at Northstar EMS in Searcy, is the Arkansas EMT Association EMT of the Year. She received her award during the association’s annual banquet at the Embassy Suites in Hot Springs on Aug. 4. West has been an EMT for four years.
Misty West of Searcy, an EMT at Northstar EMS in Searcy, is the Arkansas EMT Association EMT of the Year. She received her award during the association’s annual banquet at the Embassy Suites in Hot Springs on Aug. 4. West has been an EMT for four years.

— Misty West of Searcy loves being an EMT.

West, who has been an EMT at Northstar EMS in Searcy for four years, was honored as EMT of the Year by the Arkansas EMT Association during its annual awards banquet at the Embassy Suites in Hot Springs on Aug. 4.

Prior to the banquet, West didn’t know she was getting the award.

“It was an honor to know that I received it,” she said. “I was actually there at the banquet with the Northstar Honor Guard. We go to funerals and serve all the fallen people who have passed away in the line of duty. We had done a memorial service. That night, they had the awards ceremony. I was already in town, so I stayed for the awards ceremony. I had no idea that I was getting the award. Then when they called my name, that is actually when I knew I had won.”

West said she was interested in the award and asked her supervisor, Tonia Hale, if she needed to do anything extra to be considered for the award.

“I know that they do it every year,” West said. “My partner, Vanity Hull, actually nominated me after she knew I was interested in it.”

West said she had to provide documentation of duties she performs for Northstar.

“Prior to getting the award, you have to show pictures of proof that you’re involved in the community,” she said. “I’m a volunteer firefighter. I have pictures to prove that. I had a lot of documentation. People wrote letters recommending me. I knew I was going to be nominated for it. I never dreamed that there would be a chance that I would get it, being that it is based on all of Arkansas.

“I guess every company can nominate EMTs. There are lots of ambulance companies out there.”

Donald Shull, president and general manager of Northstar, said he is proud of West for receiving the award.

“She’s a great employee,” he said. “She goes above and beyond the call of duty. [The award] reflects that we have very professional employees who work here.”

West said she’d always wanted to be an EMT, but it took her awhile for that to happen. She worked for Burger King in both Searcy and Heber Springs, working her way up to general manager before going to Arkansas State University-Searcy, where she took an EMT class that lasted one semester. At that point, she was a certified EMT.

After earning her EMT certification, West worked with her brother at the Fairview Fire Department.

“I was on the volunteer department prior to getting hired at Northstar in May 2014,” she said. “In that five-month span, I ran calls with Fairview because I was a certified EMT, making sure that this is what I wanted to do before I changed my whole career.”

“It is just something that, while growing up, I’ve always wanted to do,” she said. “My brother [Bobby Spencer] is a volunteer firefighter. The excitement runs in the family, you could say. It’s just something that I’ve wanted to do.”

While she still works part time at Burger King, her position at Northstar is her full-time job.

“I enjoy helping people,” she said. “It’s an honor, the feeling of knowing that I saved somebody’s life or that I made a difference in somebody’s life in their time of need. It’s hard at times. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not all fun and games like people might think it is.

“I look at it as helping the community.”

West said Northstar is community-oriented.

“They are very active in with the community to try to train the community as far as CPR, or they’re doing stop-the-bleeding classes,” she said. “They are more of a family-oriented business. That’s what I enjoy, being able to help people.”

Staff writer Mark Buffalo can be reached at (501) 399-3676 or mbuffalo@arkansasonline.com.

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