$44,400 from the Berthe M. Cote Foundation

A foundation that invests in rural care, and an agency with a plan

The Berthe M. Cote Foundation supports health care in our corner of New York. In early 2026, Chief of Operations Steve Near wrote and submitted an application with a specific proposal: equipment that would let our paramedics do more for the sickest patients on the longest transports in the county. The Foundation approved it in April 2026.

The Foundation awarded $44,400 — the full amount requested — to purchase and deploy that equipment across every fly car.

The grant funds a new critical-care capability that our Medical Director has approved and that we are building now: equipment, protocols, training, and the quality review to go with it. We're not announcing the details until the program is ready to go in service — when it is, you'll read about it here first.

What we can say: it is aimed squarely at the problem that defines EMS in Greene County — the distance between where people get hurt and where a hospital can help them.