Arnold EMT Recognized For 30 Years Of Service

While many kids and parents are getting ready to dress up for Halloween, Alicia Blake-Hall will don a uniform like the one she has worn for 30 years as an emergency medical technician.

Blake-Hall was recently recognized by the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians for three consecutive decades of emergency medical service (EMS) certification. To maintain her status as a nationally registered EMT, she had to complete a recertification program on a biennial basis.

She was nationally registered as an EMT in 1993 and has been serving the Arnold Volunteer Fire Department for 15 years.

“This is family, hands down,” she said of the Arnold fire department. “It’s a very small station, but we’re mighty.”

Prior to joining the Arnold unit, she spent eight years in Pasadena and seven in Prince George’s County.

Life at the Arnold station has been relatively calm compared to Prince Goerge’s County, where she responded to many calls stemming from traffic accidents.

“There was much more blood and guts in PG County,” she said.

Blake-Hall took a circuitous route to that position after graduating from the University of Maryland as a dietician.

“We tell a heart attack patient to eat low salt …  but what happened to make you have the heart attack medically?” she said, citing one example of the health issues she examined.

Combine that dietician experience with training as a certified diabetes education specialist and insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor (CGM) product trainer and she has a unique clinical background.

“All these things made me a unicorn,” she said.

Blake-Hall has worked in hospitals and helped adult day care facilities develop menus. She also started Eat Healthy to B-Healthy, a mobile service specializing in diabetes education.

She feels fortunate to be part of the Arnold Volunteer Fire Department, which pays nurses and paramedics, and encourages continuing education. She advanced her education with a degree in nursing from Anne Arundel Community College in 2020.

“Most stations don’t say, ‘You should go back to school,’,” she said. “There’s no drama here. It’s professional.”

Professionalism is a trait that fellow volunteers admire about Blake-Hall.

“Alicia dedicates her life to her daughters and shares her time with the community,” said Debra Hopkins, an officer with Arnold Volunteer Fire Department. “She is knowledgeable, smart, funny and, above all, compassionate. She selflessly gives her time to help others.

“When she isn’t running calls with the Arnold Volunteer Fire Department, she is educating others. She teaches CPR and provides one-on-one diabetes and nutrition counseling. Any community would be blessed to have her. We got lucky.”

Heidler Plumbing is a proud sponsor of Volunteer of the Month. To nominate a volunteer, email spvnews@severnaparkvoice.com.