The Hill House Association will pay tribute to the men and women of the Freedom House Ambulance Service with two events scheduled on Thursday, September 25, 2014. A plaque will be unveiled at 2021 Centre Avenue, very near the original Freedom House building. It acknowledges the pioneering efforts of Freedom House founders, staff, medical advisors, and supporters to provide much needed pre-hospital care to the Hill District and the City of Pittsburgh. They made history as the first ambulatory unit in the country trained in advanced emergency medical care, saving lives, and paving the way for a new professional undefined the paramedic. Invited guests include Freedom House Ambulance Service personnel; Phil Hallen, President Emeritus of the Falk Foundation; Morton Coleman; John Moon, former Assistant EMS - City of Pittsburgh Emergency Medical Services Bureau; and filmmaker Gene Starzenski of GenaStar Productions of Los Angeles.
At 6:00 pm in the Hill House Association's Kaufmann Center, there will be a reception and screening of the "Freedom House" documentary. The first 100 people who attend the documentary in the Elsie S. Hillman Auditorium will receive a free first aid kit emblazoned with the Freedom House emblem. After the showing, there will be a community conversation. In the 1960's, calls for emergency services often went unanswered in the low-income and predominantly African American Hill District. Back then, Pittsburghers who needed emergency medical care were transported to hospitals in the backs of police wagons. Lifesaving medical treatment did not begin until they reached the hospital door. All of that changed in 1967 when Freedom House trained more than 50 underemployed and unemployed neighborhood residents as emergency medical technicians. Rigorous training was provided by Dr. Peter Safir and Dr. Nancy Caroline. They owned five sophisticated mobile care units, and operated acclaimed emergency service around the clock.