On Saturday, August 8th About fifty-nine bicycle riders took to Central Pennsylvania roads to raise money for the National Multiple Scelerosis Society Glimcher Keystone Country Ride. There were three courses; thirty-five, fifty, and seventy-five miles starting at the Penn Stater Hotel and going south as far as Saint John Church in Tyrone Township, Blair County. Other stops were at Halfmoon Valley Church, Spring Mount Church, and Camp Kanasataki. It was a beautiful day for the ride and everything went smoothly except for a serious medical emergency with one of the riders.
Around 1000 hours K8QR operating as a sweep vehicle found a rider off his bicycle suffering from what looked like exhaustion, heat exhaustion, or even a medical event. Yi called for emergency traffic and two emergency medical technicians (EMT), KB3VDG and K9SDW, were dispatched to the location on Route 550. After evaluation the EMTs determined an ambualnce was needed and K3CWP at the Incident Command Center contacted 911. The patient was taken to the Emergency Department at Mount Nittany Medical Center. After that the scene was cleared and operations returned to normal.
Ride operations started at 0630 hours and concluded at 1400 hours. Here are the amateur radio operators and family members who participated in the communications operation.
- Carmine Prestia, K3CWP
- Elaine Prestia, K3ERP
- Andrew Prestia
- Dan Muthler, K9SDW
- Ken Johnson, KB1BH
- Rick Gilmore, W3TM
- Kevin Lear, W3XOX
- Craig Miller, K3OOL
- William Gartner, KD3CPR
- Andrew Mummert, W3AND (Cumberland County)
- Keith Comp, KC3FVN (Perry County)
- Ryan Vanauken, KB3VDG
- Jim Rayburn, W3JIM and family
- Drew McGhee, KA3EJV
- Yi Zhang, K8QR
- William McDevitt, W3WBM (Venango County)
We thank all the amateur radio operators who participated, special thanks go out to Yi, K8QR, for finding the ill rider and keeping him in a stable environment until emergency medical care arrived.
This year the MS Society hired an event management firm, Blue Pallet Events, to organize and run the event. Amateur radio coordinators, Carmine, K3CWP, and Drew, KA3EJV, found Blue Pallet’s event leader, Priscilla Livingston very good to work with up to and during the ride. Ms. Livingston sent Drew and Carmine the following thank you:
“… I wanted to send a huge thanks for all your help this past weekend. It was so great to have all your institutional knowledge, especially in net control. Your coordination was a huge help and all your work did not go unnoticed.
It was especially nice having such a solid group of SAG and Sweep drivers.
I hope to work with you both again in the future!”
Thanks to Blue Pallet Events the MS Society for inviting us to participate and the Nittany Amateur Radio Club for use of the W3YA repeater for ride communications.