OCEAN CITY — The Ocean City Fire Department recently held its Annual Awards and Recognition Ceremony, honoring members for their commitment to public safety and protection of the Ocean City community.
The celebration named Firefighter of the Year, Member of the Year and Paramedic of the Year, along with several Years of Service Awards, Distinguished Service Awards and Resuscitation Awards.
Along with Chief Chris Larmore, Deputy Chief Chris Shaffer and Deputy Chief Moe Cropper, several dignitaries attended the ceremony, which began with the Ocean City Volunteer Fire Company (OCVFC) Ladies Auxiliary Awards. The OCVFC Ladies Auxiliary Member of the Year Award was given to Verla Hammond and the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Cheryl Nottingham. In addition, the Ladies Auxiliary donated funds raised to the John Paul Adkins II scholarship fund, the F. Michael Sacca scholarship fund, the OCVFC cadet program and the OCVFC.
Following the Ladies Auxiliary, awards were presented for length of service and incident citations.
“Most of our members did not devote themselves to the fire service in order to be recognized or awarded for their actions to their community,” Larmore said. “Despite their modesty and humbleness, every member of our organization has contributed to our success and I am thrilled to have been able to honor just a few of those men and women here today.”
Also, for the second year, the department recognized successful resuscitations of patients who were in cardiac arrest. These were patients who were successfully resuscitated and discharged from the hospital with no deficit from their quality of life before their cardiac arrest. This comes after the Ocean City Fire Department adopted a High-Performance CPR program that has increased the department’s survival rate to almost 40 percent, which is well above the national average of 11 percent.
Other awards were presented to Jason L. Bloom, Volunteer Firefighter of the Year; Christopher M. Gee, Career Firefighter of the Year; Ryan L. Cropper, Paramedic of the Year; David E. Hedges, Member of the Year; Anthony J. Villani Jr., Training Award; Michael T. Todd, Chief’s Award; and Robert D. Korb, President’s Award.
Incident citations were presented to Robert E. Magee, Thomas Ryan McCready, Christopher M. Gee, Christopher G. Weber, Christopher M. Barrs, David H. Pruitt, Keith A. Bennett, Richard T. Koch Sr., Greg C. Dypsky, Michael A. Lecompte, Kyle Tanner, Steven H. Twilley, Mark T. Lloyd, Damian A. Jones, Ethan D. Hitch, Chrsitopher M. Gee, Brian L. Bond, Jeffery R. Aperance Jr. and William C. Savage III.
Earning five-year service awards were Jeffery R. Aperance, Christopher M. Gee, Nicholas L. Kinhart, Eric M. Olson, Yvete M. Rode, Jason A. Williams, Ryan L. Whittington, Ryan C. Womer, David Quilter, Captain Greg Dypsky, Anthony Sandulli, Jason L. Bloom and Guy Talbot.
Ten-year awards of service were presented to Chief Chris Larmore, Chief Moe Cropper, Asst. Chief Connor Braniff, Scott Shuster and Kevin Knowles.
Joseph Sexauer was recognized for 15 years of service, while Chris Kehne and Jerry Priestly earned honors for 20 years of service.