CAPE MOURNS SLAIN EMT
Thousand Islands Central High School, Clayton, became a funeral home and the village of Cape Vincent a reception hall Saturday afternoon as hundreds of emergency responders and residents from the region and beyond gathered to say goodbye to a comrade.
Parked emergency vehicles stretched as far as the eye could see along County Route 9 before the 1 p.m. funeral service for Mark B. Davis in the high school's auditorium.
To see a photographic tribute to Mr. Davis,
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/section/multimedia?objdir=emt_service&objw=620&objh=533
Mr. Davis, 25, was a volunteer with the Cape Vincent and Thousand Islands Emergency Rescue Service squads and a part-time employee of Guilfoyle Ambulance. He was fatally shot Jan. 30 — by an agitated patient, according to police reports — while responding with the Cape Vincent Volunteer Fire Department to a medical emergency in the village.
Mr. Davis was training to become a paramedic at Jefferson Community College.
On a stage framed by wreaths, before a projection of the village Fire Department's emblem and alongside his flag-draped casket, friends and family described the Mark Davis they knew. He was, they said, a man as energetic and devoted in his emergency-response duties as he was in his off-duty role as a joker around the Cape Vincent firehouse and his family's dinner table.
Above all, speakers drew a portrait of a young man who had recently found his calling in life and embraced it fully, with joy and pride.
"Mark had a thing for helping people," said friend and fellow emergency responder Greg McLean.
Mr. McLean said he met Mr. Davis when Mr. Davis was working as a restaurant cook and was uncertain of his direction in life. He encouraged his friend to become an emergency medical technician and watched as a transformation took place.
After Mr. Davis's EMT examination, "he came back with that card with the biggest smile on his face," Mr. McLean said. "Everybody in the Fire Department knew he had his EMT (certification); everybody in the village knew he had his EMT."
A statement read on behalf of Mr. Davis's grandparents, Marshall and Leona Davis, Orlando, Fla., traced his compassion back to his time in day care, when, in nursing home visits, Mr. Davis "was a favorite because he was comfortable around many frail humans. ... He only needed more time to develop his skills."
"For those who knew Mark, he had a couple of passions in his life: EMS and EMS," said Glenn W. Morrison, who just stepped down from the post of director of fire and emergency management for Jefferson County.
The comment elicited a ripple of soft, knowing laughter from the crowd of more than 1,000 largely uniformed mourners who filled the auditorium and spilled into the school's cafeteria and gymnasium.
"For those passions," Mr. Morrison continued, "he spared nothing of himself."
Attendees at Mr. Davis's funeral spared nothing, either, in bidding farewell to their colleague. About 180 emergency vehicles, silent but with lights flashing, participated in a procession from the high school to the Cape Vincent Fire Department after the funeral service. The procession began and ended by passing through huge gateways created by two firetrucks with ladders extended, flying large American flags from cables between them.
A Cape Vincent fire truck carried Mr. Davis's casket to the firehouse, where a "last call" ceremony was held.
Among the crowd at the ceremony, April Ingerson, Clayton, said she remembered Mr. Davis from when he responded to a medical call at her father's house about a year ago. She came with Bernard D. Laplante "to pay our last respects," Mr. Laplante said.
Celia Bachmann, battalion chief of the ambulance service for the Chili Fire Department, near Rochester, said Mr. Davis's death hit a nerve for all emergency responders. "We never know if it could be one of us. ... You never know what kind of a scene you're walking into."
Dick Hodge, Cape Vincent, a member of the village's French Festival committee with the Chamber of Commerce, said he met Mr. Davis at the committee's January meeting, where Mr. Davis signed up for another dirty job: chairman of the festival's cleanup crew.
The flag draped over Mr. Davis's casket was folded and given to family members. Mr. Davis was ceremonially summoned to duty for a final time from the 911 dispatch center in Watertown, and the dispatch announcement played over a loudspeaker to an emotional crowd.
In a moving moment, David C. Sherman, general manager of Guilfoyle Ambulance Service, and Roland G. "Rolly" Churchill, director of Thousand Islands Emergency Rescue Service, presented an honorary paramedic certificate to Mr. Davis's family.
When Mr. Morrison concluded the ceremony with the words "detail dismissed," many of the assembled firemen and EMTs exchanged hugs and tears with Mr. Davis's family members and each other. The FDNY Emergency Medical Service Pipes and Drums corps, composed of emergency medical responders from New York City, played "Amazing Grace."
Afterward, Mr. Morrison, eyes tearing, read a statement from Mr. Davis's family before television cameras, thanking the community for its support and sympathy.
"We want to encourage everyone in the emergency services field to always remember Mark, and serve as he did, with professionalism and pride," he read. "We will heal after this tragedy, but we will never be able to forget. But we will heal together."
