LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) It had been a rough weekend for first responders in Lawrence.
First, they rescued a 1-year-old and his mother, after she allegedly drove a vehicle into the Kansas River. Then, the next day, they recovered the body of a 5-year-old girl who had also been a passenger in the car.
At times like these, Paul Taylor and six volunteer chaplains are a quiet force standing alongside law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency service crews offering help as needed. Sometimes, all that is necessary is for them to place a hand on a shoulder.
Its a ministry of presence. Essentially, chaplains are just there and supportive for both the victims and first responders.
Sometimes people forget first responders are human and have emotions, Sgt. Kristen Channel, with the Douglas County Sheriffs Department, told the Lawrence Journal-World .
We have to have outlets for what we see and deal with, Channel said. Our chaplains are a great resource, they are there for us, they know what we are going through, they know how to counsel and provide resources we might need at the time to make it through stressful and emotional events.
Taylor is a familiar face with first responders, having arrived in Lawrence as a paramedic with the Douglas County Ambulance Service in 1981.
He trained at Southwestern College in Winfield back in mid-1970, when an ambulance looked more like a station wagon and often served a dual function as a hearse.
In 1995, Taylor retired as a paramedic and spent the next 20 years serving as a full-time pastor at a Lawrence church.
By 1997, the Douglas County Ambulance Service merged with the fire department and became Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical. Thats also when Taylor returned as a volunteer chaplain.
They started having difficult things happen, and I started as the fire departments chaplain, Taylor said.
There had been a house fire in North Lawrence, and a 5-year-old child died.
It was one of those circumstances which was very difficult, Taylor said. But at the time, there wasnt a chaplain or someone to debrief the firefighters.
By 2005, he also began serving as chaplain for 911 dispatch, providing education and support for when they dealt with crisis calls.
Sheriff Ken McGovern asked Taylor to serve as volunteer chaplain with the sheriffs department in 2009.
