FARMINGTON — NorthStar held its annual recognition and awards banquet during National EMS Week to honor its staff of emergency medical providers. The ambulance service of Franklin Memorial Hospital operates throughout the Greater Franklin County.

This year’s theme was “EMS Strong, Stronger Together” and this dedication was felt throughout the evening. Sen. Tom Saviello, District 17, was in attendance.

Tim Finn, of Strong, took top honors as NorthStar’s Employee of the Year. This annual award recognizes the one employee who best represents NorthStar’s mission of professionalism, excellent patient care, community service, fiscal responsibility and overall excellence. On a daily basis Finn shows his dedication and untiring support of NorthStar and the EMS profession, according to a news release from Franklin Community Health Network.

Other awards presented during the ceremony included Above and Beyond awards given for actions and performances that are a cut above the norm. This year’s recipients were Cassandra Purington, Alex Lynch, Carol Pillsbury and Jared Stinson.

EMS “Dinosaur Awards” were given to those serving 25 years or more. They included Dr. Stephen Zanella, NorthStar medical director; Carol Pillsbury, Lee Ireland, Mike Senecal, Wade Browne, Greg Drummond, Rod Koehn, Barry London, Peter Wade, Don Grondin, Kregg Kane, Jeremy O’Neil and Jeff Dresser.

Recognized for serving 15-plus years were Beth Scott, Chuck Twitchell, Earle Albert, Jane Clukey, Sherry Labbe, Harold Schaetzle, Ed Goodwin, Chris French, Corey Morse, Mark Rousseau, Shelby Rousseau, Matt Smith, Abbie Shamp and Stan Wilcox.

Michael Senecal, NorthStar director, said in his closing remarks, “We very proud of NorthStar’s accomplishments in the 13 years we have operated as a combined regional EMS service. We have state-of-the-art equipment and modern ambulances, but our most important assets are the professional EMS providers who respond day in and day out. Our entire NorthStar staff exemplifies the best in EMS and we are pleased that we can honor them in this way. We look forward to continuing to provide the highest level of emergency medical services to each and every one of the communities we serve,” according to the release.

Then two days later Lee Ireland, a NorthStar paramedic/operations manager, was presented an EMS Merit Award in a ceremony at the Hall of Flags in Augusta. The award, bestowed by Maine EMS, recognized Ireland’s involvement in establishing the first group of First Responder services in Franklin County, as well as his many years of consistent and excellent patient care, according to the release.