Paramedic Students Graduate and Participate in Special Ceremony Announcing Recipient of New Scholarship Memorializing the Late Paramedic and Alumnus Kevin Bundy Jr.
(Delaware and Chester Counties, PA • October 5, 2021)—Eighteen Delaware County Community College students recently graduated from the College’s Paramedic Program during a poignant ceremony, which included the first awarding of the new Kevin W. Bundy Jr. Memorial Scholarship, created by his mother in memory of the 33-year-old, College alumnus and paramedic for Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital and Crozer Keystone Emergency Medical Services who died of COVID-19 last year. Bundy was the first reported first responder in Delaware County to die from COVID-19.
“At the age of 33, Kevin’s life was cut short due to COVID. But COVID will not end Kevin’s legacy. Kevin’s legacy will live on through you,” said Bundy’s mother Helen Brown in awarding the scholarship to paramedic student Valerie Holliday during the Paramedic Pinning and Graduation ceremony at the College’s Marple Campus. A mother of three young children and stepmother of two additional children, Holliday works as an emergency medical technician in New Jersey and is on track to graduate next year from the College’s Paramedic Program. She also is working on a baccalaureate degree from Rutgers University, where she majors in Urban Studies.
Timothy Boyce, director of Emergency Services for Delaware County, thanked Helen Brown on behalf of Delaware County for her son’s selfless service, and urged the paramedic graduates to remember the evening’s ceremony throughout their careers. “It is not an easy profession to join,” Boyce said. “You have chosen a noble calling. You, as a paramedic, will save someone’s life.” Bruce Egan, Delaware County president for the Emergency Health Services Council, who was Kevin Bundy’s lead instructor when Kevin was in the paramedic program at the College, said Kevin loved being a paramedic and had a wonderful sense of humor.
Delaware County Community College President Dr. L. Joy Gates Black thanked Helen Brown and complimented the paramedic graduates for being dedicated to their training amid difficult circumstances. Last year, the students were allowed to continue their training at the College under a state coronavirus waiver the College received because of the importance of the profession during the pandemic and the need for paramedics statewide. As part of their training, the students spent time with preceptors, professional paramedics working in the field and sometimes dealing with people who had COVID-19. “These brave men and women put themselves at risk so they could learn how to help others,” Dr. Gates Black said of the 18 Paramedic Program graduates. “It is women and men like you who make the College proud, and I wish you a lifetime of success.”
The 18 paramedic graduates included: Jermel Bowen of Philadelphia, Kristen Boyer of Drexel Hill, Paul (Tripp) Brown of Malvern, Veronica Colozza of Fairless Hills, Brittney Funderburg of Lansdowne, Amanda Gamboa of Brookhaven, Joshua Hamilton of Brookhaven, Karissa Jennings of Havertown, Thomas Knoblauch of Collegeville, Ashley Lopez Feliciano of Philadelphia, Quintin Lotz of Malvern, Owen MacFawn of Media, John
Madsen of Drexel Hill, Christopher Montgomery of Philadelphia, Ian Tully of Ridley Park, Ausavin (Joe) Vickyanont of Upper Darby, Jade White of Philadelphia and Joseph Winiarski of Brookhaven.
Photo Caption: From left, Delaware County Community College President Dr. L. Joy Gates Black, Vice President for Institutional Advancement Rachael Patten; Helen Brown, who created the scholarship in memory of her son Kevin Bundy Jr.; Kevin’s three sisters in the background; and student and scholarship recipient Valerie Holliday.
