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By MIKE LANGE GREENVILLE - When New York City emergency medical technician John Healy was called into work around 10:30 a.m. on September 11, he arrived at Ground Zero shortly after the second World Trade Center tower collapsed. "I didn't get home until 3:30 a.m. Wednesday (the next day). Then I took a few hours off and worked at the crisis center," said Healy. "After that, it was 16-hour work days. We had no concept of time or what was going on in the outside world. You folks watching television knew more than we did." But during all the horror and devastation, Healy said that the outpouring of support and offers of help from so many places, including Maine, prompted him to "help out some folks for a very good cause." Healy and fellow EMS instructor Jack Carlson will be joining dozens of other cyclists this Saturday for the annual C.A. Dean Memorial Hospital Bike Ride which gets underway Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at Greenville High School. The cross-country ride through the woods in a loop from Shirley to Greenville and back is about 16 miles, according to C.A. Dean Community Relations Director Mary Lyons. "Donations are coming in very well, but we would like people to pre-register so we'll be sure to have enough food for the post-race barbecue," said Lyons. Healy's participation in the bike ride is also a homecoming for his wife, Joanne, and the first opportunity for their sons, Walter, 17, and Michael, 13, to see Maine. Joanne Healy's father, Duane Clark, and aunt, Bernice Smith, live in Greenville. After the terrorist attacks, Clark came to Healy's home in College Point, Queens to stay with his daughter and family while the EMS worker was at Ground Zero. "The whole thing was so terrifying, especially when you knew your husband was risking his own life trying to save people," said Joanne Healy. Complicating matters even more was the fact that Walter and Michael were stranded at school in Westchester County for two days because authorities closed all the bridges into the city. Healy and Carlson have been EMT instructors since 1987 for the New York City Bureau of Training, EMS Division. They're responsible for providing training and refresher courses for the 3,000 EMT's and 11,000 firefighters that work in the city. Carlson has co-authored a lecture series with the New York State Fire Academy on emergency response to terrorism. Saturday's bike ride will mark Carlson's first visit to Maine, Healy noted. "I hope he sees a moose on the bike ride," joked Healy. Anyone wishing to register for the ride or make a donation to the C.A. Dean emergency services and New York City's EMS Memorial Fund may call 695-5200. |