TRACADIE, P.E.I. - For Riley MacKenzie, the inside of an ambulance is both a workplace and a raw reminder of the father he lost in the line of duty less than two months ago.
Riley is an equipment supply technician with Island EMS, the same service where his dad, Mike MacKenzie, worked as a paramedic. He and colleague Jenna Croucher died July 7 when their ambulance collided head-on with a transport truck in New Brunswick. The patient in their care, Anne Martell, also died.
This week, the pair are among the fallen paramedics being honoured by roughly 40 cyclists travelling about 300 kilometres across P.E.I.
“Times are tough, but we know that Mike is here with us every step of the way and wouldn’t want us to be sad over it,” Riley said. “So we’re making the best out of what these moments have brought us.”
The three-day Tour Paramedic Ride is bringing together locals and others from New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario, and highlights the risks of answering emergency calls, from dangerous roads and scenes to the emotional toll of the job.
Among the cyclists is Ryan O’Meara, a policy analyst and planner with the province’s Emergency Health Services division, riding to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
“The total to date is 58, which I think is surprising to a lot of people,” O’Meara said, adding that he knew some personally.
“It’s heartwarming to know that we as a profession can come together in times of tragedy to comfort one another and to hold one another up,” he said. “That’s the only way we’re really going to get through it.”
Participants are also raising money for a national monument in Ottawa. Firefighters and police officers already have their own.
More than $500,000 has been raised over 13 years, according to Tour Paramedic Ride President Mike Janczyszyn. But the project is expected to cost up to $6 million, and the group hopes the federal government will help close the gap.
“Their co-workers, their family, their friends, they can go to honour the people that they’ve known that have been part of the profession,” Janczyszyn said.
He believes part of the reason a monument hasn’t already been built is that paramedicine is a relatively newer profession, but the growing network of participants helps give paramedics a stronger voice.
The turnout was even more moving than Riley expected.
His father was an integral member of the ride’s planning committee and a dedicated ambassador for Island EMS, encouraging children and teenagers to consider the field.
“I know that it’s not just me out there,” he said. “Other people have had these losses in their lives.”
