ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 6, 1996 TAG: 9606060019
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-43 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
Ever since he can remember, Clay Ward has wanted to be a paramedic.
"Ever since I could think straight, I guess," said Ward, 18, who will graduate from Salem High School this month.
When he was about 5 or 6, his uncle - a paramedic for a rescue squad in Greenville, S.C. - gave him a yellow firefighter's helmet.
"I don't know why he gave it to me. I was too young to know why," he said.
Whatever the reason, that memento has stuck with Ward.
At 16, he became a certified EMT and joined the Salem Rescue Squad. He works a shift there every Saturday.
And when Salem Principal John Hall learned that the school had an in-house EMT, he recruited Ward to handle all emergency medical calls at the school.
"I just love doing what I do," Ward said. "It gives me a kind of weird high - an adrenalin rush."
After graduation, Ward will continue pursuing his love for rescue work. He's headed to the U.S. Coast Guard's boot camp July 9 in Cape May, N.J. He'll spend eight weeks there before being stationed somewhere along an American coast.
"Their motto is 'search and rescue,'" he said.
He thought about going into the Marines. But his father, who was a Marine, persuaded him to think more about that.
After being trained to save lives, Ward said, "I didn't want to go into the Marines and learn to take lives."
Since he began his duty as the school's EMT, he has helped fellow students suffering from seizures, asthma attacks and dislocated shoulders.
The school office will call him out of class and he rushes to the scene - whether it's shop class or the gym. Ward assesses the problem, then determines whether a Salem rescue unit needs to be called.
Around school and to classes he usually wears his rescue squad badge and a shirt identifying himself: "Rescue Squad - my number is 911."
"It's the type of thing [where I] can't pick the type of day I'm going to have," Ward said.
While in the Coast Guard, Ward hopes to train to become a maritime police officer. After the Coast Guard, he says he may go into police or rescue work.
Ward will be one of 222 seniors graduating from Salem June 12 at 2 p.m. at the Salem Civic Center.
Salem's valedictorian, Zachary Hurst, and salutatorian, Amy Moore, will speak at the ceremony.
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