Peggy Revell
For his hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm, a local Confederation College paramedic student has been recognized with an award given in memory of a fallen Canadian soldier.
Dave Egan, who will be graduating this year, was presented with the 2010 Josh Klukie Memorial Award—created in honour of Pte. Josh Klukie, a Canadian soldier from Thunder Bay who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2006 and who earlier had graduated from the paramedic program at Confederation College.
The memorial fund, started by a Thunder Bay paramedic in order “to keep the spirit that Josh had alive,” is given to a second-year paramedic student who best exemplifies what Klukie “stood for in life.”
“I thought it was a very special and meaningful award to get, out of all the awards you could possibly get,” said Gaby Emond, the local paramedic who nominated Egan for the award.
“[Klukie] was very well-liked in his class, and very well-liked by the Thunder Bay medics who had gotten to know him, and he certainly was very well-liked as a soldier,” she added.
“He had so much to offer, and [his life] was sadly brought to a very quick end.”
Emond said she thinks it’s fitting that Egan has been recognized with the award as she sees him having many similar characteristics with Klukie when it comes to being helpful and getting along with people.
“[Egan is] very good with the people, he’s very good with his co-workers and his co-students,” she stressed.
“He’s always helpful and he has the right, easy-going mentality.
“He’s very much a people person, he easily talks to the people, he’s going to be great for the patients in the Rainy River District,” Emond lauded, adding his personality helps to make a traumatic situation “a little bit easier to bear.”
“I was surprised to get it and be nominated for it,” Egan admitted. “Once I learned about what Josh had done, I was very proud to receive this award on behalf of him.
“It means a lot to me.”
Now that his final year of the program has wrapped up, Egan will be writing the provincial exam June 9 for official certification.
Along with his personality, it was his dedication and hard work throughout his time at college that prompted Emond to nominate Egan for the award.
“He was an exceptional student in terms of he wasn’t your model academic throughout the years,” Emond explained.
“But then he’s come back [to the district] after going out west and having some fun, and doing some different jobs out there,” she noted.
“And then he came back here, and he decided he wanted to be a medic.”
Returning to the district to settle down with a family, Egan was missing the courses needed for the paramedic program, meaning he had to do upgrading to even qualify.
As such, he enrolled in Confederation College’s pre-health program, Emond said.
“He did that even though he still was not an academic, so he had to probably work a lot harder than the rest,” she explained, praising Egan’s enthusiasm and hard work.
“He went through and he gave such fantastic effort in doing the academic part that he certainly deserved every last little ounce of mark that he got.”
Once Egan was enrolled in the paramedic program, his enthusiasm and hard work continued—not just with his own work, but in helping his fellow students succeed.
Egan keeps himself fit, noted Emond, whereas some of the other students have not spent as much time in the gym.
Because of this, Egan always was helping other students, encouraging them to come to the weight room with him and helping to get them on a program.
“He would say, ‘I’m going to the weight room, who’s coming?’ and he would help them along,” Emond recalled.
“That was really good for them, especially for those that didn’t have any idea of what to do there.
“In our first year, we had some students who were struggling in the practical component, with putting on equipment and [who] were not as comfortable with the scenarios that we were running,” added Emond, citing another example where Egan always as willing to help out.
“And [Egan] was always, ‘Come on, I’ll help you.’
“He was always offering to help,” she said. “Actually, this whole crew was a very good crew that way.”
Emond said Egan also was an enthusiastic volunteer every time someone was needed to run a scenario—an enthusiasm which didn’t wane even when, against all probability, he always was randomly selected to run outside scenarios, including those in minus-20 weather.
He always shows up early at work, has volunteered all of his downtime at work to put in hours and hours on equipment maintenance, repairs, modification, and more, Emond noted in her letter of nomination.
“I don’t think I would have done this without my classmates,” Egan remarked. “[They] had a lot to do with it.
“We had a really good group, we all worked together, we all helped each other,” he noted.
“I think they all deserve it,” Egan added. “It was just a really good group and I was just happy to work with them, with everyone.
“And if I helped anyone, great.”
