Butler County IA EMS

10/28/2025

10/28/2025

A strong thank you to a very strong family!!

10/22/2025

Hey EVERYONE! I am getting ready to plan an informational meeting for the up coming 2026 Butler County EMT Class!! Remember as I stated in the previous post if you are interested in becoming one of the FEW the PROUD the BRAVE Butler County EMS alumni please reach out to me on messenger with your email and phone number so I can get you included in the informational meeting. This will be our 3 class, we are going to limit the number of people for the class so we as instructors can provide the one on one focus our students need to become the BEST EMT's that they can be!
Nothing makes Tammy and I more proud than seeing success of our EMT's in the field. Whether it be seeing them on a call or having them take care of one of our loved ones. We are going to do our best to help you have the tools and knowledge to become the best EMT you can be. So we will have a class limit. You still have time to sign up for the informational meeting and see if we fit. Please reach out to me either on the Butler County IA EMS messenger or to me personally on Facebook. I want to get this scheduled by Friday. Sooo....

10/19/2025

Come on out to support your local fire department and enjoy a good breakfast!

10/17/2025

Sorry it has been awhile since I have last posted! Been a lot of stuff going on! I just wanted to send out a quick reminder to anyone interested in taking the EMT class please send me a message and include your email and phone number. We will be having an informational meeting here shortly and I want to make sure I can get that info to you via email and tex. Also did you know that 2026 is EMS's 60th year!!

I also want to remind everyone please stay safe our farmers are working extremely hard to get the crop's in and with the dryer (well not the last few days but.....) the dust can make it hard to see so please slow down and pay attention. Just want everyone to stay safe!
-Kari

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09/22/2025

WOW the response from last weeks post about reaching out if you are interested in becoming an EMT or taking our Butler County EMT class has been amazing. If you are interested and have not already reached out please send me a PM with your name email address and a phone number where I can tex you if needed! For those who have sent a PM you should have gotten a message! I am so Excited for the interest!!!! Please remember that you do not have to take the EMT class to be a driver for our volunteer services so if you are on the fence we could always use drivers and that will give you the opportunity to see first hand what it takes to be an EMT!
So basically I am asking for volunteers for both EMT students and Drivers! We need good help!!!
Thanks,
Kari

09/16/2025

Ever thought about becoming an EMT? Butler County EMS is putting feelers out there for our upcoming class! If you would like to get more information please reach out, I would love to talk with you! Our class is very educational but most of all Tammy and I LOVE to make it fun! So if you have thought about becoming and EMT and like a class were you learn and have fun while doing so, LETS CHAT!!!
I have put a challenge out to all of our EMS services in the county to bring us at least 1 person, but we would love to have more than 1 from each service!!!! NO you don't have to live in Butler County to take our class, we are open to have anyone who wants to become an EMT!
Hope to hear from you!
-Kari

09/11/2025

There are certain days that stay with you FOREVER and those days are/can be life changing. Today is the 24th anniversary of one of those dark days for America.
There were a total of 424 emergency first responders killed: 343 firefighters, 71 law enforcement officers, and 8 EMS (Emergency Medical Services) personnel, primarily at the World Trade Center site. As Frontline workers/volunteers we honor them by continuing to do what we do, knowing the sacrifice they made that day shall never be forgotten as we continue to provide our services.
I also want us to remember the 3,205 people who were also killed. 2,977 people at the Twin Towers, the 184 people at the Pentagon and the 44 passengers who lost there lives on flight 93 in Somerset County Pennsylvania.
Lets not forget the aftermath of these events, and the families of these people who had to try to rebuild their lives. The rescue crews, and everyone else who was involved.
As the Butler County EMS Coordinator, I ask that you take a minute and think about those, then I ask for you to take another minute to think about and be thankful for all that you currently have. Life is short and everything can change in a blink of an eye.
Stay safe my friends,
-Kari

09/05/2025

September is Su***de Prevention Awareness Month Struggling with the stress of what we do can be a huge factor in our over all well being. I want to point out that this does not only affect us but our loved ones as well. Asking for help is NOT a sign of weakness! It is a sign of STRENGTH!!! Not asking for help only causes harm. So if you are or know someone who is; there are people who care and who may not have been in your shoes but they know the struggles and want to help. Please reach out.
Let us HELP! There is HOPE!
I know.

09/03/2025

Hey Everyone, I said that I would post if there was interest in what Butler County EMS has done since I started two years ago. I can tell you that I have learned so much since I have taken this position and that I have had the privilege to work with some amazing people! I am going to try to keep this a short informational post, (ya right! 😊)
I started August 23rd of 2023, with a goal of Sustaining and Growing. My office was full of EMS Association and training items, so I rolled up my sleeves, got things organized and put away. The Butler County Sheriff agreed to let us have a retired squad car for a response vehicle, so the decals got replaced from Butler County Sheriff to Butler County EMS.
I needed to figure out what was needed/required as far as response bags and equipment. Get it ordered and ready to go. I had a goal to start responding October 1st. To achieve that goal I needed to become a member of all the services in Butler County. I believe my first response was September 28th of 2023! (made my goal) Since that time Butler County EMS has responded to 525 calls for service! (As of Aug 23rd 2025) This is Monday through Friday day time coverage from 8-430 with the exception as of the second week in June of this year we added a part-time employee who works from 4pm to 9 Monday through Thursday.
During my first few weeks on the job I also wanted to learn and get a better understanding of how our dispatch centers work, so I spent time with ours here in Butler County and went to most of the surrounding counties to learn. BOY let me tell you what, those are some of the most AMAZING PEOPLE EVER!!! Let’s talk about being able to mutli-task and stay calm under pressure!! Hats off to all those amazing Dispatchers out there! You all do some pretty amazing things that we don’t even see or know that you are doing! Truly a great group!
Found out about a way to get our Butler County Deputies new AEDs with service and patches free for up to 8 years, followed up with that information and got them, they are all trained and some of our deputies have even used them! With the new AED’s in place, we had some of the older but still good AED’s, so we re-distributed them to churches throughout our county with the understanding that those receiving them needed to do the upkeep on them. Training was also offered and provided for those who requested it.
I have taught 24 CPR classes with 121 people becoming recertified or Certified in CPR! I apologized I have not kept track of those who did not want the certification but wanted to be shown how to use an AED and how to do CPR. But 121 PEOPLE!!!
I am very compassionate about Mental Health, especially in our Frontline staff. Too many frontline workers suffer from the stuff we see and do every day, with some taking their own lives’ because of it. Knowing these battles, I wanted to do something about it. How can we help others when we are not helping ourselves? I have been trained in Group Crisis Intervention, Assisting Individuals in Crisis, Advanced Assisting Individuals in Crisis and Crisis Informed Peer Para Counseling. These were all done through the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (icisf). Is that enough, NOPE! Along with Butler County Public Health we did a Mental Health First Aid certification class through the National Council for Mental Wellbeing! And then I took the Mental Health Resilience Officer training!
With the support of our Butler County Board of Supervisors, I was able to build a team and get them trained in Group Crisis Intervention and Assisting Individuals in Crisis class and we have our own Butler County Peer Team that consist of 12 members from different backgrounds to help when needed. This group is so invaluable and has been called upon, the need was there, and we are meeting it! I want to just add that those members are all volunteers who also care and are compassionate about our Frontline staff and being able to assist when needed. I send the volunteers MANY THANKS because there is no price to put on what they are doing!
Butler County EMS has also worked alongside Butler County Public Health in hosting 2 blood drives! This last blood drive we were able to get enough blood to impact 90 people! We are truly working together to make a difference!
Butler County EMS was made aware that not all the EMS services had a Lucus Device (mechanical compression used for CPR). That needed to change! With help and support from the Board of Supervisors, the Opioid Settlement Committee and the Community Foundation Grant, all our services have access to a Lucas Device! This is huge!!!!
Another thing I should add is that I have taken the training with the State to become a Narcan instructor. What this does is allows our EMS crews to get training and free Narcan.
Also have continued to work with Service Area 2 to get our EMS services/Cities to get reimbursed for training for our EMS crews.
Another little, short but lengthy process, well worth the work is Our VOTE PASSED last November to make EMS in Butler County an ESSENTIAL SERVICE. So, we now will have funding to continue to do what we are doing. I want to reassure all of you that I too am a taxpayer and will continue to do the most that I can with as little money (our taxes) as possible.
Are you still reading this? REALLY!?!? OK I will keep going. I am not only compassionate about Mental Health, but training / education is REALLY important to me. Butler County EMS has gotten a subscription through one of our local colleges that our Volunteer Services have access to and can apply for continuing education for the training they DO. Sponsored / taught 12 continuing education classes. Once again, I am not done! Tammy Fleshner and I took training through the National Association of EMS Educators and are both EMS Instructors. So, we have taught two EMT classes in Butler County with a total of 19 students eligible to sit for the National Registry Test! WE are so PROUD of our STUDENTS for this! It really is a HUGE deal, and they have done a lot of work, a ton of hours away from home and loved ones to accomplish this. Yea we are super Proud of them. So along with that Tammy and I were asked to become members of the NIACC Advisory Board and of course we agreed! Looking forward to what the future holds with that.
Butler County EMS is also working towards becoming our own service so we can provide Advanced / Paramedic level care to our county. This too is a lengthy, well worth it process that we are looking forward to completing. We once again have the support from our local services and our Board of Supervisors. We recently got a local doctor to agree to be our Medical Director, and he is truly a great doctor, and just a great person. So, we are looking forward to working with him on this adventure.
So, if you made it this far, I hope you can see that Butler County EMS is not a waste of money, that we are trying to do good things and make life better. Yes, this has taken me a little longer to get out to you because I am not the type to say “look at me/us” but it has been pointed out to me by many that we need to let everyone know. So…. I think I have hit everything thus far, hopefully you found it to be a little interesting. Most of all I want to say THANK YOU for your support. Remember if you are at all a little bit interested in EMS please reach out! We need Volunteers! STAY SAFE! -Kari

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08/27/2025

A huge thank you to Iowa State Bank for their generosity! Come on out and double up your donation!

08/27/2025

Check out this opportunity to help those who help others!!!!