Fairfax City Firefighter Honored for Volunteer Work in Honduras

One of Fairfax City's own firefighters, Captain Greg Rauch, was recognized recently for outstanding volunteer work in Honduras.

Fire Chief Dave Rohr said, "[Capt. Rauch] has devoted his career in Fairfax to the service of others. In 2013 he decided to take that work ethic on the road and become a volunteer for MEDICO.org, where he has won the award for the first-ever New Volunteer of the Year."

Rauch first traveled to Honduras in March of 2013 as part of a 24-person medical, dental, and eye team, where he worked to triage patients in rural Las Aradas.

It was his first time outside of the U.S.

Just one month later, Rauch returned to Honduras with MEDICO, this time with four people and several thousand dollars worth of donated supplies that he secured from Vidacare, the manufacturer of EZ-IO technology.

The group spent one week working in an underfunded public hospital in Gracias called Juan Manuel Galvez Hospital. There, Rauch trained medical professionals on how to use EZ-IO technology, giving doctors and nurses easy, quick, intravenous access to the circulatory system.

When Rauch was not providing training, he was installing donated equipment, painting walls, and making the hospital emergency room a safer, cleaner place for all.

Since returning from his second trip, Rauch has been working on improving MEDICO's safety procedures and streamlining the organization's medical supplies.

It was Rauch's longtime friend, Dr. Mark Franke from Chantilly, who recruited Rauch to join a MEDICO team and was with him for both trips in 2013.

Franke said, "Greg is an incredible paramedic and a well-respected leader. I invited him to go on a trip to Honduras primarily because of his strong clinical insight and situational awareness. On both trips Greg showed great clinical judgment and diplomatic skill. He was a team player and an incredibly hard worker."  

"Greg is a pleasure to work with and I'm proud to call him a friend," Franke added.

Sarah Carriker, director of volunteers at MEDICO, said Rauch was a natural choice to recognize with the organization's first New Volunteer of the Year award.

"Volunteers like Greg are quite unique because they like to roll up their sleeves and get involved in many facets of the mission of the organization," Carriker said. "It's rare to find someone who is willing to give up two full weeks out of the year in service to the poor and also work on improvement of programs so that future volunteers can have an even better experience."

"We want to recognize Greg because he has done a tremendous amount of work for MEDICO in his first year, all while holding a public service job," Carriker said "Fairfax is very lucky to have him!"

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