WAUSA – Greg Conn has a sense of pride in volunteering and serving his community.
The 60-year-old has been an emergency medical technician for the Wausa Rescue Squad since 1991, along with Dave Carlson, Murray Peters and Bill Thierolf.
Conn, who also has been a Wausa firefighter since the late 1980s, recalled his inspiration to volunteer and serve his community comes from when emergency personnel and firefighters responded to a flood that covered his southeast Nebraska hometown of DeWitt with knee-deep water in 1984.
“I remember I was asked to ride a six-by-six to help get people out of town,” Conn said. “And somebody said, ‘This is something you ought to do. You ought to think about getting into it.’ They saw something when I was helping people get out.”
His father, Galen, told him one of the first things he should do when he moved to Wausa in 1985 was to find his “niche” and get involved in the small community where he lives and works.
“I’ve enjoyed it, serving in this capacity,” Conn said of being a longtime volunteer EMT and firefighter for Wausa. “It does mean a lot to me.”
He described the rescue squad as “great.”
“We have such great leadership,” Conn said. “We have such a great group of people. That’s the biggest reason that I’ve stayed on for so many years. It’s just that cohesion that we’ve had.
“These people mean a lot to me,” he said. “They mean a lot to me – almost as much as my own family. That’s why we’re so good as a team. It takes a team to run a call. I don’t care how big a call or if it’s just a transfer.”
He noted serving on the rescue squad has been “absolutely rewarding.”
“I realize there are some difficult times in there,” Conn said. “Sometimes we lose some people we know very closely. Especially with as long as I’ve been here, you get to know a lot of people.”
He highly encouraged people, especially young ones, to volunteer and serve their community.
“It still teaches me about leadership – how to work with people in stressful situations,” Conn said. “We’ve got a great group, but we’re getting older. One thing that we try to do is encourage young people – or people that are even thinking about it – to come down. Let’s talk and see what we can do.
“We’ve got some good young people that have started with us,” he said. “It’s like any small town. People work in town and people work out of town. Sometimes there just aren’t many of us (in town to respond to a call).”
He credited Wausa firefighters who are not EMTs for volunteering to drive an ambulance or helping out where they can when needed.
“We’re all together,” Conn said. “We’re one department. We’re such a cohesive group. People have told us from different departments that’s pretty amazing. We’ve got something special.”
He has a sense of pride in being a volunteer and serving the village of Wausa and the surrounding area.
“It’s something that I can give back,” Conn said. “It just makes me feel good to be a part of it because of helping out the community.”
He noted there are days when a call will come in early in the morning and then the volunteers who responded have to turn around and go to work on little sleep.
“By the end of the day, we’re pretty rung out a little bit,” Conn said. “The bottom line is that you have that sense of pride when it’s all said and done. It’s more than just a contribution. It’s a sense of pride. I just feel a lot of pride working with this group and being a part of it.” He described that his duties vary when he responds to an emergency call, especially depending on who arrives at the Wausa Fire Hall first.
“We talk about that all the time,” Conn said. “We get in, and then OK, who’s in charge? We’ve got to make sure that person is established. We all have the same skillset. We all jump into something different. It just all depends on how we come in and we just do our thing.
“We have learned how to talk with each other, communicate who’s doing what – that’s a big part of that leadership, that’s a big part of that team-building that we work on throughout the year,” he said. “You just hope it makes us better. Unfortunately, the sad part of it is, we don’t get to save them all, but we feel really good about who we are and how we work together.”
Since moving nearly 40 years ago to northeast Nebraska, Conn has been employed by Wausa Public Schools, first as the industrial technology teacher for several years and then as the guidance counselor.
He also is Wausa’s head coach for track and field as well as volleyball, and serves as the activities director for the school district.
“I love it,” Conn said. “It keeps you going. Some days, it gets pretty intense with what you’re trying to get done. This time of year, you’re trying to wind down and you’re trying to get things done.
“When I get to go down to the track and work with our kids, that’s my safe zone,” he said. “That’s just my release outside of the fishing and hunting that I do. I just enjoy coaching kids.”
As far as his role as a Wausa EMT, as well as a firefighter, he noted he plans to keep volunteering and serving his community into the foreseeable future.
“I still want to continue to be a part of this,” Conn said. “I see myself doing this for a long time.”
He credited the Wausa area as “a great community who really supports” its EMTs and firefighters.
“We’ve gotten new equipment – and equipment that’s needed,” Conn said. “They’ve been very supportive of all the equipment that we’ve asked to get.
“They give us the resources to allow us to become a better department overall, not just rescue, but fire as well,” he said.
He noted he appreciates the “tremendous community support.”
“That makes you feel good,” Conn said. “That makes it feel like – as a team and as a department – that people trust us to do the right things and make sure that our department is well-trained.”
