by Diana Foxall

The Revelstoke paramedic recently marked the end of her 33-year career with BCEHS – and while she’s looking forward to spending more time with her grandkids and traveling the world, she’s going to miss taking care of her community.

Kellie grew up traveling all over BC growing up: her father worked in the engineering department at the Ministry of Forests, which kept the family on the move. It wasn’t until she ended up in Revelstoke at the age of 20 that she felt like she finally had a hometown – and once she got there, she really settled in, marrying a local and raising two kids.Kellie’s career in health care began in nursing: in fact, she split her time between paramedicine and the acute care department at the hospital for nearly 20 years.

“Because it’s a small town, you saw paramedics in the community,” Kellie said of her entry into the field. “One day, a friend of my husband’s said, ‘You should take first aid and come join us.’”

After giving it some thought, she got her Occupational First Aid (OFA) certification and her Class 4 License and began working part-time as a paramedic.

Kellie’s kids were in elementary school at the time, and she switched positions at the hospital to get more time on-car, wearing a pager during the day shift and opting for night shifts at the hospital. She carried the pager in Revelstoke until the station received full-time positions a few years ago, and when that happened, her seniority put her at the top of the list for full-time.

Her passion for health care is driven by her community.

“I’m not one of those thrill-seekers,” Kellie said when asked why she chose paramedicine. “Sometimes I picked [a patient] up one day and looked after them in the hospital the next day, then took them home.”

“I got to see them through their whole health journey … it brought me that satisfaction of seeing people taken care of.”

She wrapped up her nursing career in 2010 after 35 years.

Fourteen years later, when she celebrated her last call as a paramedic, many of her former nursing colleagues showed up at the station to send her off.

“The nurses that were there, I’d worked with for probably 20, 25 years at the hospital,” she said. “Some of them came there right after school, and I worked with them then and they’re still nursing.”

As a paramedic, Kellie has been a prominent face in the community for decades.

“They do look for a familiar face, especially the older generation,” Kellie said. “I had one little lady that I ran into in the grocery store a few years back, and she said she’d been sick a few weeks prior, but when she called for an ambulance, she was shocked to find out that it wasn’t me at the door.”

She did spend some time in the – very fitting – community paramedic role in Revelstoke, saying she enjoyed the routines of her regular visits.

“On Tuesday mornings, I would visit one couple and do my thing with them – then the husband would make espresso and we’d have biscotti,” she recalled. “I knew not to have my coffee before I went there, otherwise I’d be a bit too buzzed.”

Kellie is fiercely passionate that Revelstoke deserves more than to be considered as a stepping stone on the way to a bigger station.

“When I started, everyone started with a first aid ticket in their local communities,” she said. “Some of them went off and did their EMA 2, which was the PCP now, went down to the coast, spent years commuting, et cetera. I wasn’t in a position to do that and had no desire to.”

“One of the hardest things was having kids come here and start, and maybe put a year in – then they transfer out,” she said. “It became a bit more of a revolving door, except for about eight of us.”

But things are looking up, and at the time of her departure from Station 336, Kellie says the younger generation seems to be getting on board with Revelstoke being a destination, not just a stop on the way to the big city.

“The kids they’ve got here now are starting to commit to the community, buying homes and staying, so it will be easier on the community that way.”

Not only was Kellie well known around town, but she was also considered the station mum by some – with one of her younger colleagues affixing a label to her boot rack that said ‘Revy mum.’

“Our house was always open to the crew at Christmas and Easter and Thanksgiving,” Kellie said. “Everybody would come for dinner – they’d park the ambulance out front.”

Kellie went out with a bang as she wrapped up her career: she was recently nominated for the Emergency Medical Services Exemplary Service Medal alongside her unit chief (UC), Kirk Pitaoulis.

“Everyone is pretty hush hush when they nominate you for those things. I said to Kirk, ‘Did you know about this?’ and he said, ‘Oh yeah!’” she said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better UC than Kirk – he’s always been there for everybody, he’s a great guy to work for, and I’m going to miss him.”

As her time as a paramedic comes to an end, Kellie is excited for the younger generation joining the organization, encouraging them to aim high and chase their career goals – and to take care of each other.

“That’s what keeps us all strong: knowing we have each other’s backs.”