Presenting EMS Magazine`s Eighth Annual Holiday Gift Guide

     Season's greetings, everyone, and welcome to EMS Magazine's Eighth Annual Holiday Gift Guide. Vicki and I have searched far and wide to assemble a list we hope will be of assistance in finding the right gift for that rescuer or rescuer-to-be in your life.

     One note pertaining to this year's Gift Guide research: Vicki and I took early retirement from the city of San Francisco, and I accepted a chief's position with a county third service located along the western slope of Colorado. We went from America's 14th-largest city to a rural/frontier county of 550 square miles with a full-time population of just over 4,000. So a lot of the research and shopping this year had to be done online. With that said, let us begin.

     As always, let's start with suggestions for those young rescuers-to-be. They're our future, and they're what holiday gift-giving is all about.

GIFTS FOR KIDS

Costumes
     Is your little prospective EMT/firefighter/law enforcement officer really into play-acting the job? The folks at Galls, The Roberts Company and OUR Designs all have costumes/outfits that can be purchased with various accessories. Prices range from $24.99-$51.99. The costumes vary in quality and materials from vinyl with printing (essentially themed raincoats) to much more realistic, depending on price.

Home Decor
     Looking for something to accessorize that special child's room? Emergency services have gone mainstream enough that there is a wide variety of choices available. For fans of shopping on eBay, search for "fire trucks [and] ambulance custom light switchplate." The plate you'll find, from a helpful and reliable vendor known as kmy4560, has a royal-blue background that has multiple fire engines, trucks, rescue squads, command vehicles and Type 3 ambulances featured on it. It is listed with a "buy it now" price of $3.99 plus $2.99 S&H.

     Not fancy enough? How about rescue-themed drawer pulls? The folks at coolknobsandpulls.com are featuring rescue helicopter, ambulance, police car and fire engine drawer pulls/knobs for $4.95 each. Check them out online at www.coolknobsandpulls.com/cabinethardware.cfm/category/rescue-knobs.html, or contact them in more traditional ways at 800/811-6302 or sales@coolknobsandpulls.com.

     Going for the complete look? Several different vendors feature rescue-themed wallpaper borders. The folks at Kids Furniture Mart have a 9-inch-wide by 10-yards-long border that not only features police cars, ambulances and fire engines, but has several rescue figures and pieces of rescue gear. Check it out at www.kidsfurnituremart.com/kids-decor/wall-decor/products.cfm?action=view&key=OK108.

     The folks at Wallpaper n' More offer a different emergency-services border that also features a repeating pattern of an ambulance, a police car and a fire engine. It is 6 inches wide and comes in 15-foot rolls for $13.99 plus S&H. See www.wallpapernmore.com/products.php?pid=FZ4557BDB.

     Last on this theme, the folks at wallpaperwholesaler.com feature yet a third emergency-services wallpaper, this one 9½ inches high, in 10-foot rolls for $19.49. Buy a dozen rolls, and the price drops to $13.50.

     Also of interest at that site are emergency-services height/growth charts featuring law enforcement, firefighting and EMS vehicles. You have your choice of a generic or personalized chart, $26.39 plus S&H.

Toys
     Moving on, how about a quality toy ambulance? The folks at The Learning Shop have a 10-inch-long ambulance with lights that flash as it moves. The Web page description promises "all the lights, sounds and medical equipment of a real ambulance! The push-along vehicle opens to reveal a medical unit inside, complete with a patient. You can even hear his heart beat and tummy growl." For age 18 months and up, for $29.95 plus S&H. See www.learningshop.com/Store.cfm?Info=1&ProductID=613.

     The folks at Amazon are offering the Light & Sound Ambulance by International Playthings for $28.95 plus S&H. This is your standard 10-inch Type 1 ambulance with working light bar and siren. The roof lifts off to show the patient care compartment, as well as working back doors. The set also features an EMT and a gurney. Check it out at www.amazon.com/International-Playthings-MW8643-Light-Ambulance/dp/B000BKNBSM (International Playthings offers other emergency-services vehicles and play sets as well).

Books
     Every 2-3 years a children's publisher comes out with a series of emergency-services-themed books on board stack for the 2½-5-year-old age group. The latest offering is from Paradise Press, Inc.: "Doc" the Ambulance (On the Move), by Julie and Eddie Roseboom.

     Like many books of this type, the Rosebooms' book features a siren sound-effect button. (This amused the heck out of our postal carrier who delivered the package. Every time she turned, the package would shift and sound off.) The illustrations are kid-friendly and feature Doc rescuing an inanimate object, in this case a motorcycle and its sidecar, with a resulting happy ending. This is a good intro to EMS for 3-4-year-olds, and of course there are corresponding books for "Cruzer" the police car and "Squirt" the fire truck. Available from Amazon.com for $4 plus S&H.

GIFTS FOR ADULTS

Books
     Moving on to that older EMS type in your life, what would holiday gift-giving be without Steve Berry's I Am Not an Ambulance Driver series? Hot off the press is Steve's latest offering, I Am Not an Ambulance Driver X. Yes, it's the latest and-according to a conversation I had with Berry at EMS EXPO-maybe the last in his popular series, which is why he did the entire book in color.

     Like all of Berry's books, the 10th opens with the now-famous EMS snowman scene, probably one of his best. From there he pokes fun at everything: partners, patients, management, responding with other agencies, receiving ED personnel, paperwork and more. All in all, another funny and great look at what we do.

     I Am Not an Ambulance Driver X by Steve Berry. 2006, www.iamnotanambulancedriver.com, $19.95.

     Next up is MOS: Member of the Service by C.B. Garris. Three things about this book: One, it was brought to my attention by a reader who inquired if I'd heard of it, which I hadn't. Two, C.B. Garris is a nom de plume, as the real paramedic portrayed in these events is still in negotiations with the city of New York over his disability retirement from injuries received on the job. Three, I really, really liked this book.

     MOS is a "fictional" tale of a New York City paramedic in the year or so prior to the takeover of NYC*EMS by the Fire Department of New York. The main character, who narrates in the first person, is a member of the department's Tactical Patrol unit. These folks are also SWAT medics, hazmat medics, etc. He also comes from my generation of medics, where things were "dealt with" in the field.

     MOS is a well-written tale of providing EMS in the streets during an incredibly stressful time. This stress didn't just come from the EMS calls, but from interactions with other emergency services, management and the loss of coworkers not just to events on the job, but to life and suicide as well.

     NYC*EMS was a huge service. They had more EMTs and paramedics staffing just their dispatch center than we had working for the entire city of San Francisco. Consequently, you had a broader cast of characters and a larger volume of "big" calls than most of your average EMS operations. So the tale that is shared is exciting and fast-paced and has an authentic feel to it.

     If you have a hard-core EMS type on your gift list, MOS might just be the perfect holiday gift for them.

     MOS: Member of the Service by C.B. Garris. Trafford, 2003, ISBN: 1-555395-617-6, $27.95.

Patches & Pins
     Have an EMS patch or pin collector on your gift list? Do we have the present for them! There's a move afoot to establish a National EMS Museum to commemorate the history of EMS and the individuals and organizations that provide emergency care to the sick and injured. As an initial fund-raising effort to get this long-overdue project from concept to reality, the founders have created a unique patch and pin, which they are selling for $5 plus S&H. See their website, www.nationalemsmuseum.org, or try EMS Books, 800/367-0382, www.emsbooks.com.

     Speaking of the folks at EMS Books, they have a huge selection of books such as the I Am Not an Ambulance Driver series available at discounted prices, some of them deeply discounted. One of the holiday items they had at their EMS EXPO booth was a nice pewter Star of Life tree ornament for $8.99 plus S&H. On www.emsbooks.com, follow the "Tees, Gifts and More" link, then scroll down the left-side menu to find "Pewter Gifts."

DVDs
     Looking for something in the way of job-related DVDs? The Lifetime television network, as the centerpiece of its "Be Your Own Hero" campaign-which encourages women and girls to have the self-confidence to be themselves, take risks and fulfill their dreams-adapted Jane Stern's 2003 book Ambulance Girl into a well-made and humorous Emmy-nominated 2005 film of the same name. Starring Kathy Bates, who also directed, Ambulance Girl is a look at one woman's journey to becoming a volunteer EMT and the effect it has on not only her life, but her family's, depicting the resentment experienced when a volunteer has to share their time with strangers. This is not just a good EMS movie, but a great one-for the entire family as well.

     Ambulance Girl is available for $12.99 plus S&H from Amazon.com; however I was able to purchase my copy, plus several extras as gifts, from eBay for about half that.

     Have someone on your list who's a fan of the Vietnam-era medical drama China Beach? The series, set at the 510th Medical Evacuation Unit stationed at the China Beach R&R center in South Vietnam, aired from 1988-91. The show's central character, a surgical nurse portrayed by Dana Delany, was supported by a slew of colorful characters ranging from a surgeon whose marriage was crumbling to a cynical "Donut Dolly"-turned-prostitute and others too numerous to mention.

     The scripts were drawn from the stories of Vietnam vets and assembled in a series of 64 episodes that were gritty and had a very realistic feel to them, yet remained entertaining. One of my favorites was a Memorial Day special where the actual vets shared vignettes, followed by segments of the show that featured the events they described. Well, now Tour of Duty, the entire 64-episode series, is available from the folks at Amazon for $109.99 plus S&H.

     That's it for this year's Gift Guide. We hope these suggestions have proven helpful, or at least interesting. Once again, Vicki and I would like to wish a happy and healthy holiday for you and yours.

Norm and Vicki Rooker have been involved in rescue and EMS for almost 60 years between them. Their extended family includes four paramedics, three EMTs, a retired ER LVN, four other allied health professionals, and four step-grandchildren and 12 nieces and nephews to help field-test most of their gift ideas.