In today's commercial society, where the attitude of ''what's in it for me'', made all that more obvious with a constant stream of commercialization, its refreshing to see that there are still those who retain a concept of compassion to others and their communities.

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This is often demonstrated on a daily basis and in smaller communities where, were it not for the efforts of volunteers, EMS and fire would not exist. Not every community is large or has a sizeable tax base. In fact the country is made up of many small communities who are dependant on neighbor helping neighbor. Then there are those events, often unreported, that except for a simple twist of fate and the actions of a few, are rarely observed by those on the outside and accomplished for no other reason then it was the right thing to do..

Case in point: A soldier from Rochester who's serving in Iraq is making it possible for an Iraqi boy to travel to Albany for heart surgery.

Staff Sergeant Charles Cutler serves with the Rochester-based 98th Army Reserve Division. He met a boy named Ali while on a routine patrol near Baghdad last spring.

Cutler learned Ali suffers from a congenital heart condition that requires surgery not available in Iraq. He and nine other soldiers got together to help arrange for the boy and his father to travel to Albany, New York for medical treatment.

Cutler, who's a paramedic in Rochester in civilian life, told his mother it was something he felt he needed to do.

Next case in point: Efforts to save "ambulance man" from 'potters field' burial. To friends, Robert Tiedemann was "Orbs," a nickname he won when he lit a gas oven one day in the Shephard Ambulance headquarters and it exploded, singing his eyebrows and scattering his frightened fellow drivers. 

He was a man of small stature who lived at the ambulance office and had few clothes but his service uniform with its shiny black shoes. He took meticulous care of his ambulance, even polishing the inside of the hubcaps. 

He never married and had no surviving family except the ambulance drivers with whom he spent most of his life. 

Mr. Tiedemann worked for Shephard for 30 years, living many of those years in an apartment in the Shephard ambulance office on Capitol Hill. 

Other than his ambulance uniform, Mr. Tiedemann owned one sports coat and one pair of pants. 

Because he had no family, his remains would have been held in the King County Medical Examiner's Office and if no family came forward he would have been cremated and buried in a communal plot. 

Several of the EMS personnel who are members of the Professional Car Society, a club dedicated to preserving antique ambulances and EMS history, took up the cause providing the "ambulance man" a proper burial. Robert Shepard, Lee Cox, Steve Lichtman, Randy Strozyk, and American Medical Response were but a few who stepped up when they saw a need They did so without any expectations of getting anything in return and showed a great deal of compassion for one who has worked in the industry that would have otherwise been forgotten and cast aside.

The Professional Car Society took up a collection from its members and have purchased a headstone for Orbs. At his funeral his casket was transported by a Shepard Ambulance from the Columbia Funeral Home to the grave site.

Compassion, the common link that binds those in EMS and makes the communities we live in a better place to be.

All photos courtesy of Robert Shepard, Professional Car Society