Four Essex-Windsor EMS paramedics will meet today with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne before heading to an international paramedic competition in Europe.
The premier invited the team to meet with her, calling them "well known and admired across the province.
Team Captain Chris Kirwan calls meeting the premier an exciting opportunity. "I'm excited. It's an opportunity, definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity, to meet someone at this level — someone who is the premier of Ontario. It's also a very unique opportunity to spread the word of the work that paramedics do."
Kirwan also hopes to highlight the value of paramedics to the premier and promote some of the initiatives paramedics are pushing. "The initiatives that are driven towards a paramedic memorial — so we're looking at a paramedic memorial in Toronto right now, a provincial memorial — so quite a bit of effort by paramedics across the province."
The Ralleye Rejviz competition is scheduled for May 24 to the 28 in the Czech Republic.
Team Ontario is made up solely of Essex-Windsor advanced care paramedics Chris Kirwan, Lancer Huver, Mike Filiaut and Shawn May.
The group won the gold medal at the competition last year.