National EMS Memorial Bike Ride

I just wanted to offer a sincere thank you to all the riders and support staff of the muddyangels. My husband Joe Murawski was one of this years honorees, and my family had the honor of meeting a good number of you in Perth Amboy NJ at the service there, and were there to welcome you all to Roanoke. You are all such caring and honorable people…the emotion and love I felt was unbelievable. I am so proud of each and every one of you….To all I got to meet personally, you touched my life. To Blaine Rackliff from Maine…thank you for taking Joe on the ride of his lfe…I am glad that you told us of the inspiration he gave you for all the hard climbs. Thank you for giving the bracelet to our daughter Jamie.
My humble thanks to all of my new friends
Debbie Murawski

Need we say more? Thank YOU Debbie, for allowing us the honor to ride in Joe’s memory.

This is a tribute video that Steve Berry put together and showed the riders this year. Crank it up and enjoy the goosebumps baby!

Below is a list of EMS providers who died in the line of duty. By clicking on the name, you will get to see some information about the person along with pictures in many cases.

Please note that this is a work in progress and is by no means complete. If you have knowledge and/or information about others, please shoot us an email and help us complete the list. If you notice any errors in the list, let us know that as well. Thanks.

Charles D Allen
Tommy Allred
Joe Alvarez, Jr
Charles “Mac” Atteberry
George Beeler
Heidi Behr
Allan W Bragwell
Christa Dawn Burchett
Tennille Annette Davis
Darcy Lynn Dengel
Dana Dedman
Kline Dewire
Jarrett Dixon
Craig Dorsey, II
Diane Elaine Efaw
Brien Patrick Eisaman
Brian Ellicott
Paul J Erickson
Lynn Ethridge
Cruze Fernandez
Dale Francis
Billy A Gafford, Jr
Nadar Hammett
Lisa Hansen
Jeffrey Lynn Jeans
Joe A Jones
Timothy Keller
Niciole Kielar
Matthew Lamb
Michael James Latta
Ron Laubacher
Wilford Livingston
Kimberly Madison
Jerome C Marion
Heidi L McDougall
Maureen Mary McGee
Chastity Miller
Peter A Miller
Joseph E Murawski
Deanna Palmer
Allan D Parsons
Paul Patterson
John Pittman
Richard H Powers
Kelly J Rager
Deborah Reeve
David Aaron Sauder
Mandy Takeshi Shiraki
Wayne Topping
Rick Seiner
Joseph Shaefer
Neal Sherman
Sammy Ray Smith
Joe Snow
Joseph Daniel Villiaros
James J Vincent, Jr
Carl Weiss
Karen Woods
Marlena Lee Yomes

I just came across this video. I defy anyone to watch it and tell me “I don’t think I could do it”.
“Heart” is every bit as important as strength!

I first rode in the EMS Memorial Bike Ride last year to honor a good friend of mine who died the year before of a 911 related illness. When the general public talks about heroes, police officers and firefighters are always mentioned, rarely do you hear EMS, or as we are referred to AMBULANCE DRIVERS. My intention was to bring a little recognition to the importance and dangers of belonging to EMS.

I saw my friend fight the city to get the benefits he so rightfully deserved due to getting sick from the WTC. The city kept denying him the benefits, the same benefits they handed out to every firefighter who applied for them. In the end Timmy received what was due him, his first check arrived a month after he died. There was no reason he had to spend his last couple years fighting the city which he dedicated his life to!

The question I was asked most when I told people of the memorial ride is “Why would you want to ride a bicycle 600 miles?” That followed the exchange of “600 miles on a motorcycle is not that bad, how come it is taking 6 days?”

I, like a lot of others on the ride, had friends, co-workers or families on the wall. My friend, Junior Godsey, was placed on the wall in1998. Junior was a medic in my town when I first got into EMS. I was a first responder running calls with a local fire department. I took a couple of classes where Junior was an instructor and our friendship just developed. He was killed during a flood in Carter County TN in 1998. He was killed doing what he loved, helping others.

People asked me if the ride was hard or difficult? My response was always “yes, but no harder than the ones that made the ultimate sacrifice”. I hurt every night after the ride but my hurt healed. The families that have lost loved ones learn to deal with but their hurt never heals.

So this is my motivating factor, to honor those that paid the ultimate price!