Laurel resident Stella McNeer is one of the American Ambulance Association’s “Top 100 Frontline Ambulance Workers” in the nation for 2009-2010.

In recognition of this honor McNeer, who works with AMR in Jackson, traveled to Washington May 3-6 to receive the association’s “Star of Life” award.

“It came as quite a surprise,” said McNeer. “I’m grateful for the honor.”

Although McNeer lives in Laurel, she works as a paramedic at Jackson’s American Medical Response (AMR). A subsidiary of the Greenwood Village, Colo.-based Emergency Medical Services Corporation, AMR is the nation’s leading provider of medical transportation. It is locally operated in 38 states and the District of Columbia. AMR’s 18,500 paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and other professionals transport more than four million patients nationwide each year in critical, emergency and non-emergency situations.

Jim Pollard, AMR spokesman in Jackson, said the company is proud of McNeer’s achievement, as well as Charles Wise, an AMR employee in Gulfport who also received the award. The two were the only Mississippians to be listed in the “Top 100.”

“This is award is the highest honor an emergency medical service worker can receive,” said Pollard. “The award is presented each year to paramedics, emergency EMTs and emergency medical dispatchers who epitomize the spirit of the ambulance profession.”

McNeer also received the Mississippi EMT Association’s Paramedic of the Year award at that organization’s annual conference in Natchez on April 19. A 20-year employee, McNeer serves as a paramedic, operations supervisor and emergency medical dispatcher

“I love and enjoy what I do,” said McNeer, who works 13-hour shifts, three days a week. “I’ve been in this business for 31 years. I don’t think I would be doing it for so long if I didn’t love it.”

Her love for emergency medical service began in her hometown of Forest, Miss., in 1977. She was visiting friends who where working at a local ambulance service one Sunday when they received a call about a drowning.

“I asked if I could ride with them,” she said. “They let me do it and my life was changed forever.”

She enrolled in classes at what was then Meridian Junior College and in 1978 she became a certified emergency medical technician. She continued her studies and has been a paramedic for 18 years.

“The opportunity to make a difference in somebody’s life is what keeps me going,” said McNeer. “When someone is ill, I try to help them feel better. I try to live by what the Bible says: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ If you do that, nothing will go wrong.”

McNeer especially enjoys spending time with her elderly clients. She said sometimes the elderly don’t have any family around and they get a little lonely. “They want somebody to talk to, somebody to show them that they care about them,” she said. “I try to be that someone in their lives.”

It’s McNeer’s compassion and dedication to her work that prompted friends and co-workers to nominate her. Hinds Community College EMT/Paramedic Instructor Tammy Holloway Nailen said, “Stella has a heart of gold and takes definitive action where she sees a need. No one in the AMR Central Mississippi is more respected, has run the number and variety of calls she has or contributes more to the operation.

“The medic’s medic is the best way to describe Stella,” she added. “She is undaunted by any situation. Fire-rescue and law enforcement personnel know, anytime Stella is involved in a scene, the EMS side is in best possible hands. Everyone on a difficult scene breathes easier when Stella in on-site. She is truly one of the most giving people you’ll ever meet.”