On Sept. 12, Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club hosted its 17th annual Hometown Heroes dinner at Spruce Point Inn. The event featuring LifeFlight Executive Director and EMT Tom Judge drew about 70 of the area’s first responders and Rotarians.

The club created “Hometown Heroes” after 9/11 to honor those who risk their lives to save others.  

Attendees included first responders from Edgecomb, Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Southport, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Boothbay Region Ambulance Service and the U.S. Coast Guard.               

Rotary’s incoming vice president Jeff Long spoke about the organization’s tradition of “Service Above Self,” with examples of the annual auction, bikes for seasonal workers and other club projects. Daren Graves, who co-chairs the Hometown Heroes event with wife Debbie, thanked attendees. “We’re proud of our first responders and all that they do.” Maine Rep. Holly Stover read a letter from Gov. Janet Mills noting their work.

Graves also explained that the dinner’s proceeds go to buying local police and fire departments equipment not funded in a current budget.

Starting his presentation with a one-word slide that said, “REMEMBER,” Judge asked: “Where were you on 9/11?” That day, he explained, LifeFlight was supposed to conduct casualty drills and, at the time of the attack, an aircraft was on its way to Monhegan.

“All of our lives changed forever,” Judge said. He spoke about the sense of community among first responders. “We have this imperative to act in the face of need on behalf of a stranger.”

He told attendees the whole emergency response system is “built around the promise if you call us we will come.” The job of first responders is to “make calm out of chaos, any time of the year in the middle of nowhere,” he added.

Judge spoke about building an emergency response system and the challenges faced in Maine where there are 280,000 calls to 911 for medical emergencies every year and 40% of the hospitals don’t have a laboratory on nights or weekends. To address this, some LifeFlight aircraft have laboratory capabilities.

Most of LifeFlight’s calls are to move patients from hospital to hospital; the organization transports about 2,500 patients yearly. Judge pointed out, research done in Maine is changing the standard of care in other parts of the world. He offered examples of emergencies and how their outcomes successfully changed because everyone worked as a team and “did everything right together.”

“Any day when you put on a uniform, you’re part of that fabric that makes living here so good,” he reminded the first responders.       

After Judge completed his remarks, Daren and Debbie Graves thanked him and presented him with a $1,000 check for LifeFlight from the club.

Spruce Point Inn owner Jeff Broaden has announced the Inn will donate all the proceeds from Thursday night's dinner to the Rotary's Hometown Heroes fund.