HOWLAND – George and Joan Mason’s dedication to Penobscot Valley Hospital’s Howland-based ambulance service has won the couple special recognition.

The 2001 EMS Lifetime Achievement Award is among only four to be presented later this month by the Department of Public Safety’s Maine Emergency Management Services.

The awards will be presented May 21 at the Hall of Flags in the State House in Augusta. National EMS Week is May 21-25.

“They are on call for the ambulance an incredible number of hours,” said Penny Stevens, the hospital’s director of patient care services. “It is just amazing,” added Stevens, who nominated the couple for the award.

“They definitely have commitment and a work ethic that is not seen anywhere else,” said Jill Bouchard, PVH’s manager of emergency services.

Stevens said the Masons averaged 5,275 hours of on-call ambulance work time annually the past four years, which translates into 21/2 40-hour-a-week positions and is in addition to their regular jobs.

George Mason works at Great Northern Paper’s East Millinocket mill. Joan Mason works in the Head Start program in Howland.

He is an intermediate-level emergency medical technician and captain of the ambulance service. She drives the ambulance.

“The residents of our service area are fortunate to have people of their diligence and dedication available,” said Stevens. She said it would likely take six to eight people to replace the couple, should they decide to retire.

Stevens said the couple have dedicated about 40 years to the ambulance service, which initially was a town-operated service and became a hospital service in 1973.

George Mason, 58, became a volunteer for the Howland Fire Department shortly after high school graduation in 1961. The Fire Department ran the ambulance service.

He recalled days when the town used a 1957 Ford 6-cylinder standard-shift station wagon as an ambulance. It was equipped with a cot, blankets, an old resuscitator and some leg splints. There were no communication systems, such as radios or cellphones. A siren would blow, indicating that either a fire truck or an ambulance was needed and volunteers would come to the fire station and respond.

No training was required. “We did the best we could,” he said.

Later, he took a Red Cross first aid course. In 1971, he became licensed as an ambulance attendant, and in 1979 became a licensed EMT.

After the couple married in 1963, Joan Mason became a volunteer with the fire department. “He was always at the station,” she said. “One day I said, ‘If I’m going to see him I’ve got to join him.'” Joan Mason joined the fire department and for some time was the only female volunteer.

The couple – who have raised four children – say they don’t mind being on call for the ambulance service because they enjoy helping people. But occasionally they take a few weeks off and leave town for a vacation.

The other three honorees are Richard Brown of Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft; Nancy Parritt of Steuben, who works for the Petit Manan River Ambulance Service; and Irving Chipman of Harpswell.