Florida Shut-Ins Savor Rides Home for Holiday

Nov. 24--Luella Geist, 79, lay on the stretcher looking like a kid going on a ride.

"We're going to bring you a blankie; it's a little chilly outside," said Donald Sherman, a paramedic with Orange County Fire Rescue. "We're going to have you ride in style."

Sherman and fellow crew member Pete Zell volunteered on Thanksgiving as part of the fire agency's "Home for the Holidays" Program. They transported Geist for free from Winter Park Care and Rehabilitation Center, an assisted-living facility, to her family's home in Orlando. Geist was one of nine patients the men transported to their family's homes from area nursing homes and back on Thursday.

When the Fire Rescue truck appeared, 7-year-old Jonathan Rosado waved his arms in the air.

"Grandma!" he shouted as he watched Sherman and Zell roll Geist's stretcher onto the sidewalk.

Melissa Geist said this was her mother's third time being transported by the Fire Department.

"With the cooking, it's a humongous help," she said. "I think it's a smooth transition for her, too."

More than 300 patients have been transported since Home for the Holidays was founded in 1995, fire spokeswoman Marianne Nuckles said. Four firetrucks with two crew members each transported the patients Thursday.

Because they are union employees, paramedics and emergency medical technicians get paid for the shift that begins at 9 a.m. and can stretch late into the evening. But they don't have to volunteer.

It was Zell's first time volunteering in years.

"I'm taking care of other people's mothers, in a sense," said Zell, whose mother died last year.

Before the holidays, Nuckles sends fliers to nursing homes and other facilities to advertise the service offered during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Family members sign up their loved ones, but there is a limit of 25 patients a day, she said.

John Ianson said he always signs up his mother, Amelia, for the service. He stood outside Regents Park of Winter Park, a nursing home, waiting for Steven Benjamin and Wendy Snipes, an EMT and paramedic, respectively.

Ianson said his mother, 84, had a stroke 12 years ago and is paralyzed on her left side. He used to pick her up himself, but when she became immobile, the paramedics had to step in.

"It makes our lives easier," he said. "She gets a home-cooked meal, and she's around friends."

As Benjamin and Snipes wheeled Ianson's mother down the hallway, Ianson made sure to keep close by his mother's side.

It was Benjamin's first time as a volunteer.

"People told me the smiles they get from the family members make it worth it," he said. "So that's why I'm doing it."

Tanya Perez-Brennan can be reached at 386-851-7923.

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