Mahopac Teacher Lauded for Creating EMT Course

MAHOPAC, N.Y. – Mike Revenson remembers the exact moment when he knew he wanted to become a paramedic. He was living in Boulder, Colo. for the summer with his parents who were taking classes at the University of Colorado. He went on a ride-along with the university’s police department as a young teen.

“One of the calls we responded to was a small child who had fallen off her bicycle and was choking on a plastic whistle she had in her mouth,” he recalled. “Paramedics used a series of procedures and removed the obstruction and saved the girl’s life. That was the defining moment that started my career in emergency services. I thought it was cool. I thought to myself, ‘I want to be able to save lives like that someday.’”

Revenson, 50, is now a chemistry teacher at Mahopac High School and a member of the Mahopac Volunteer Fire Department. About 15 years ago, he created the EMT (emergency medical technician) program at the high school that has since been responsible for hundreds of students going on to related medical careers.

His long, innovative career in emergency services has led him to be named this year’s recipient of the EMS Educator of Excellence award, which is presented by the Fireman’s Association of the State of New York (FASNY) and its Fire Prevention and Line Safety Committee. It is given annually for “outstanding teaching, educational administration/coordination, publication and research [that] has significantly improved pre-hospital services at the local, county, regional or state level.”

Revenson will be recognized by the Mahopac Volunteer Fire Department during a reception at the firehouse on Monday, June 13.

“I am absolutely proud to receive this honor,” he said. “I teach here because I enjoy it and I am passionate about it.”

As a freshman at Cornell University, where he did his undergraduate work, Revenson took an advanced first aider class and started volunteering with Cornell University EMS. The following year, Cornell EMS sponsored him for the EMT class at Tompkins Cortland Community College. He was recruited to ride with the Lansing Fire Department ambulance.

“It was a great experience,” he said. “In addition to them being my EMT instructors, they were also my ambulance partners. I felt very confident riding with them and the other EMTs.”

While working on his master’s at SUNY Buffalo, Revenson paid his way through school as an EMT with Gold Cross Ambulance.

“I had seen how much more that advanced EMTs and paramedics could do while in Buffalo and decided to continue on,” he said. “I enrolled in the Western NY EMS Teaching Institute’s paramedic program. I completed the paramedic program and was on my way.”

After earning his teaching certification in Buffalo, he went to a teacher recruitment day to drop off his resume. He remembers talking to officials from the Peekskill School District, who recommended that he consider Mahopac—a town he had never heard of at the time.

“I had no idea where it was,” he said with a chuckle. “I drove down and talked to them and within a couple of hours I had a job in hand. That was in 1989 and I haven’t left.”
He quickly joined the Mahopac Volunteer Fire Department and worked as a paramedic on the weekends in Mt. Kisco because Putnam County did not have its own ambulance service until 1994.

“When Putnam introduced ALS, I worked in my home county as well,” he recalled. “I assisted Bob Cuomo and Tom Lannon with their EMT classes. A number of the high school students at Mahopac Fire Department wanted to take the EMT program but due to sports, work, and other obligations they didn’t have time in the evenings when the county class was given. That’s when I knew I could start something new. After a few years of requests, the Mahopac High School EMT program was born.”

Revenson said it wasn’t an easy sell at first. He had to convince both the high school administration and the district administration.

“It took a little bit [of effort],” he said. “They were all for it, but there were some concerns about the cost. But I had the support of the fire departments and they helped me lobby and that gave [the administrators] the gumption to approve it and then it took off like wildfire.”

With a small budget to start, Revenson purchased a few items and had numerous other supplies donated by Mt. Kisco VAC, Carmel VAC, and the Mahopac Falls and Mahopac fire departments.

“If it wasn’t for the support of those departments and continued support of the local departments I don’t think the course could have continued,” he noted.
Over the years, over 300 students, according to school records, trained as EMTs through Mahopac’s program. It is now a concurrent enrollment program with Dutchess Community College and the Putnam County Bureau of Emergency Services as a Training Center. Students, upon successful completion of the course not only receive high school credit, but college credits as well.

A number of the students, along with their friends, join the local departments here and/or where they go to college. This influx of young volunteers has helped keep the Mahopac and Mahopac Falls departments going strong over the years, according to Revenson.

“Many of these students have gone on to become firefighters, police officers, doctors, nurses, career EMTs, and more,” he said. “Students have shared that they got a certain job, selected over other equally qualified applicants, because of their EMT training.”

Revenson said being an emergency services volunteer takes a lot of commitment and dedication, something his wife, Laura, didn’t understand at first.
“She would always ask me what are you doing down [at the firehouse] all the time?” he said. “I told her she should come down and check it out. She did. Soon my wife became an EMT and has been a member for a number of years and is now my ambulance partner on Tuesday nights.”

Even Revenson’s three daughters— Courtney, 24; Tylar, 17; and Jayme, 13—have also gotten involved.

“My girls would come to so many training classes that my daughter, Tylar, became my assistant instructor,” he said. “She would teach grown adults when she was an eighth grade. All my girls did it; they said, ‘Dad, we can do this as well.’”

Revenson said the EMT course at Mahopac HS has been a win/win situation for all.
“I get to teach a topic I am very passionate about, and the students learn invaluable life skills often leading to jobs and side jobs,” he said. “The local fire departments have a continual base of new members, and our community is a safer place with more trained and skilled providers.”

In a statement from Chief Bill Bahr of the Mahopac Fire Department, he said the MHS program generates about 35 new EMTs annually. The number of EMTs that complete the program and go on to use their training within the first three years is nearly 60 percent.

“It makes me proud when I see my former students running a call and doing an excellent job,” Revenson said. “It makes me happy to see these kids have this opportunity.

“I want to provide these students with the same experiences that I had,” he added. “It’s nice to know they are hanging around the firehouse and that they are looking out for each other instead of roaming around the town and getting in trouble.”