When Jessie Miller started working at Marshall Area EMS, she wasn’t sure if the medical field was her calling.
Hailing from the Milwaukee area and working toward her undergraduate degree at UW-Madison, Miller came to a village she didn’t know, seeking a trial run at a career path and a flexible job.
She found a system of mentorship and supportive friends that led her to her calling, her future husband and a welcoming community that entrusted her, and her fellow EMTs, with its safety.
Such was the passion and camaraderie that MAEMS fostered. The volunteer department shut its doors for good with the turn of the new year, bidding goodbye to the communities it served for 45 years, leaving behind a legacy of sacrifice and a new generation of inspired first responders, doctors and medical professionals.
Department members gathered last month, after a holiday event at the fire station, to be honored by the Marshall Area Business Association and the Dane County EMS Division. MAEMS Director Scott Allain shared his gratitude with the community.
“I’m thankful for the memories, the relationships, the friendships. All of which will last a lifetime,” Allain, who was with the department for 12 years, said. “On behalf of the past members, the present members and myself, thank you.”
MABA representative Julie Bergholz, presented an award on behalf of the business organization, saying it represented “the 45 years that you have all given to us, and the hours you’ve taken away from your families just to take care of us.”
A press release on the department’s final day of service thanked the communities it served—the village of Marshall and the towns of Medina, York and Sun Prairie—for their trust and support.
“We have been present at everything from childbirth to the end of life,” the release reads. “We are proud of the excellent quality and compassionate care we have provided.”
The care of those communities now lies in the hands of Sun Prairie EMS, which began its service to the area on the first morning of the new year. In a statement, that department promised to continue what the volunteers had started.
“We pledge to honor their legacy and care for the members of the community as if they were family,” the statement reads. “We are forever grateful for your service and dedication.
Miller, now a medical student at the Medical College of Wisconsin, served with MAEMS from 2016 to 2020. Of her cohort of young volunteers, she believes that ten of them went on to medical school. Her fiance, who she met first as a fellow EMT in Marshall, is among them, having graduated medical school and is working through residency.
The service has helped dozens members find their future career paths.
“The environment at Marshall and the experience I got there really did drive home that I did enjoy working in that environment,” she said in a recent interview. “There was this incredible system of mentorship. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’ve had that many EMTs go on to medical school.”
That rings true for Mackenzie Dahmen, who spent the last three years and seven months of the department’s service on its crew, even as she worked through school to become an emergency room nurse.
“Through this job I met my husband, lifelong friends, and found my passion in emergency medicine,” Dahmen wrote in a social media post commemorating her final day with MAEMS.
Dahmen’s favorite memories were made at the station, she wrote in a text. From pranks and video-making to cooking and banter, she described a tight-knit team that brought her lifelong friends.
“My gratitude and appreciation for this place is so hard to put into words,” she wrote.
While Miller expressed her gratitude for the mentorship at MAEMS, she was quick to acknowledge the volunteers who were not looking for a career path. Many of the service’s members were local residents who put in decades of long hours for the good of their neighbors.
“This is truly something that they did out of the bottom of their heart because they cared about these communities,” Miller said. “For them, it was completely an act of service.”
One such member was Scott Baumann, who spent nearly 20 years with the department.
Baumann started with MAEMS in 2003, and for years was “just a driver” — a volunteer that helped to get the ambulance out but was not licensed as a responder. He received his EMT-Basic license just a few weeks ago, according to a Facebook post he made.
Baumann plans to continue his service as a member of the Waterloo EMS department.
“I look forward to making new friends and memories,” Baumann wrote. “To the municipalities, thank you for letting me carry out my passion for public service for all these years. It’s been a great ride.”
The Sun Prairie department will take over maintenance and operation of Marshall’s ambulances, keeping one on call at the village’s public safety building, Fire and Interim EMS Chief Christopher Garrison said. Response times in Marshall should stay the same, Garrison said, at an average of four to six minutes.
The Marshall ambulance will be staffed around the clock by two paramedics, according to a Facebook post from the Sun Prairie department, and will work alongside Marshall fire and police services.
Sun Prairie Fire and Rescue, which is merging with Sun Prairie EMS, wrote in a statement that Marshall EMS has “been there for us and their communities in their darkest and brightest moments, serving with compassion and professionalism throughout. We wish the members well and hope they continue contributing their talents in EMS into the future.”
