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Campus EMTs Always on Call

The College recognized its 26 student emergency medical technicians in November as part of National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Week — a way of honoring young volunteers who provide emergency medical services to the campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week throughout the academic year.

Current members from the Class of 2010 are Sujitha Amalanayagan, Christina Clark, Erin Evans, John Lofrese, Shyama Nair, Ben Saccomano, Ryan ­Seewald and Kendra Wulczyn; from the Class of 2011, Andrew Branting, Matthew Breen, Sam Cowan, Peter Garrett, Sarah Goodell, Kathy Lee, Travis Rosenblatt, Sam Ward, Caitlyn Williams and Keith Willner; and from the Class of 2012, Hailey Bobin, Kayla Brenden, Lauren Brousseau, Sarah Dreyer-Oren, Matthew Farrington, James Kruger, Sara M. Miller and Raul Patrascu. With Dr. David Petrie, the medical director, and Student Health Services Nurse Diann Lynch, the coordinator, the student volunteers make up the Hamilton College Emergency Medical Services team.

The students are state-certified EMTS who volunteer an average of 30 hours or more a week on call, responding to more than 100 medical emergencies each semester and balancing their academic and social lives with their volunteer commitment. Most take the EMT course on campus during the spring semester of their first year, which involves a three-hour class twice a week and several six-hour Saturday morning labs. Beyond the initial course, members are required to take weekly review quizzes and attend review sessions every three weeks.

Lynch and five of the students — Amalanayagan, Branting, Lee, Williams and Willner — also took part this fall in teaching an EMT course to 25 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum who were preparing for deployment to Iraq. The course was organized by the Faxton-St. Luke's EMS Program Agency and the Central Oneida County ­Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

 

Five Honored by Alumni Council

The Alumni Council met during Fallcoming Weekend and among other business voted for recipients of various volunteer ­recognition awards.

• The Distinguished Service Award, recognizing an employee who has substantially contributed to Hamilton through involvement in student, alumni or other activities in the College community, was awarded to John O'Neill, the Edmund A. LeFevre Professor of English Emeritus, and to Robert Simon, the Marjorie and Robert W. McEwen Professor of Philosophy.

• During Reunion Weekend 2010, William M. Bristol III '43 will be honored posthumously with the Bell Ringer Award, presented in recognition of contributions made to the College, its alumni and the community.

• Additionally, the Council selected two College Key recipients, recognizing those who have performed a service or activity which has directly benefited a specific volunteer program or the College in a tangible way: Bruce H. Dobkin '69, in recognition of his commitment to students at Hamilton and for his support of students and alumni pursuing careers in neuroscience; and the Class of 1969 40th Reunion Committee, represented by Gift Chair Jeff Parsons and Planning Co-Chair John Effinger.

 

Coach, Trainer Long had Hand in Goalie Mask

Thanks to the research of hockey historian and museum curator Fred Addis — and with a recent assist from USA Today — former Hamilton coach and trainer Gene Long is being ­credited with developing the prototype of the protective mask introduced to the National Hockey League by goaltender Jacques Plante 50 years ago this fall.

According to Addis and reporter Kevin Allen in "Unmasking the Real Story of the Man that Revolutionized Hockey", Long created the fiberglass mask during the 1958-59 season for Hamilton goalie Don Spencer '59 after Spencer had sustained several facial injuries. While a few goalies already had experimented with other types of masks, Long's model offered the advantage of a custom mold, which cushioned the impact, as well as better peripheral vision. The technology grew out of Long's work in creating a custom-built fiberglass heel cup for long jumpers. "Theoretically, on a custom fit, the shock was distributed over the entire area," he told USA Today.

The development also came at a time when hockey's machismo still meant resistance to such protective gear, as Addis has shown in his historical research. "I never understood the reluctance to wear a mask," Spencer told the newspaper. "It gave you confidence. If you took a puck to the mask, it hurt. But it didn't break bones … you didn't cut, and you didn't lose teeth, and your eyes were not in danger."

The Hamiltonians were not proprietary about Long's new mask, and that may be why he is not credited in a more definitive way for its development. Long has told Addis that he freely offered his "recipe" to anyone interested; Spencer, meanwhile, sent Plante a letter about the mask in the spring of 1959 after reading a newspaper article about the Montreal Canadiens star's interest in a mask. "I was thinking I might even get a couple of tickets to the Stanley Cup playoffs," Spencer told USA Today. "I never heard back from him."

Plante created a sensation and changed the course of professional hockey when he donned a Long-like mask on Nov. 1, 1959, after being hit in the face against the New York Rangers. It was made for the star goalie by an employee of Montreal plastics manufacturer CIL, but Addis notes that the two masks "look like twins." (CIL, ironically, had begun business nearly a century earlier as the Hamilton Powder Co.)

While there's no way to prove that Long alone is responsible for the mask, it's fair to say that he "invented the technology," Addis — who is a member of the Society for International Hockey Research as well as curator of the Leacock Museum National Historic Site in Orillia, Ontario — told USA Today. "I think you can make that case."

 

Posse Students Due from Miami

The College teamed up with the Posse Foundation in 2001, graduated its first Posse students in 2005, and is now expanding its partnership with Posse as it prepares to enroll 10 students from the Miami area next fall as part of the Class of 2014.

The Posse Foundation identifies, recruits and selects student leaders from public high schools to form multicultural teams called "posses," which are then placed at top colleges nationwide. Hamilton's Posse students have so far been from the Boston area, and the expanded partnership underscores the College's commitment to an inclusive student body. "The Admission Office works hard to honor Hamilton's commitment to remain a school of opportunity, and Posse will help us identify students who might be overlooked by our traditional recruitment practices," said Monica Inzer, Hamilton's vice president and dean of admission and financial aid. "The opening of Miami Posse seemed like a great opportunity to us because it will provide us with a presence where the population is growing, and will bring those students to campus with the support that will help them be successful.

The students will undergo a 32-week training program before enrolling at Hamilton next fall. They are chosen based on their leadership ability, social status among peers, demonstrated ambition, ability to work with people of different backgrounds and desire to succeed. The program has a 93 percent graduation rate.

"Posse students are leaders on campus," President Joan Hinde Stewart says. "We are pleased to have partnered with the Posse Program since 2001 and look forward to welcoming students from Miami in the fall."