By Patrick DeLaney/American Red Cross

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people line Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, while millions more watch on television, as the annual Tournament of Roses Parade showcases extravagantly decorated floats and exciting performances for a worldwide audience. Meanwhile, amidst the jubilance and pageantry, important work is being done by American Red Cross volunteers, a service the organization has been providing for 60 years. 

A specialized group of trained and practiced volunteers provide parade participants, spectators, and support crew a critical component, one central since the earliest days of the Red Cross mission: emergency medical services. 

Incident Commander of the medical response unit, Paul Stephan, who aside from his extensive experience in law and law enforcement also served as the team medic during active duty in the Afghanistan war, had a clear vision for the Red Cross first aid services when he joined the team over a decade ago. 

The team was no longer going to be seen as just a group of volunteers “handing out thirty band-aids on the parade route,” Stephan explained. Stephan’s aim was to have the specially trained team recognized as emergency medical responders (EMRs), with the training, confidence and tools to give lifesaving support like CPR during the event.

Stephan realized this potential the first time he worked the parade. Assigned to set up a first aid tent at 5:00 a.m. prior to the parade’s start, Stephan and his team witnessed a hit-and-run event, where a pedestrian was struck by a drunk driver who had crashed a parade barricade. 

“The pedestrian was unconscious and unresponsive, and we had absolutely nothing,” Stephan explained, as the team’s medical supplies had not yet arrived at their first aid station. And while the team was able to stabilize the patient, it took the city’s emergency medical unit 18 minutes to arrive at the scene.

“That’s the kind of thing that leaves an impression on you,” Stephan described about the incident. He knew that he and the team could do more.

Today, under Stephan’s leadership, approximately 150 volunteers fulfill roles on the team. Many of these volunteers work not only the Rose Parade, but other local events year-round. In the last five years, five volunteers (including Stephan) have been awarded medals of honor by the national branch of the Red Cross for their life saving actions. 

The Red Cross Rose Parade EMR team is comprised of medical doctors, registered nurses, emergency medical technicians and youth volunteers training for careers in those same roles. 

In fact, many of the volunteers who go through the 60-hour EMR training course advance to the pool of professionals that fire and police departments, both locally and nationally, hire from to fill openings in their own agencies.

As his incident commander tenure comes to an end, Stephan is confident that his successor, Christy Adair, will continue to move his vision of a highly skilled team of medics forward. Stephan’s vision not only redefined the work the EMR team began sixty years ago for the Tournament of Roses, but also hearkens back to the work Red Cross founder Clara Barton founded on the battlefield during the formative years of the organization.

About the American Red Cross: 

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides comfort to victims of disasters; supplies about 40% of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; distributes international humanitarian aid; and supports veterans, military members, and their families. The Red Cross is a nonprofit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to deliver its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org/la.