Meet the Volunteers Who Help Berkshire Bank connect with Non-Profit Community Organizations
Erin Lis — Berkshire Bank
Our next volunteer story comes from Erin Lis. Her story began a little more recently in 2012. Joining any organization can be a hard decision, but joining one that asks you to put your life on the line to save others is hard. That is just what Erin did. After many years of being undecided, she joined the Lee, MA Fire Department as a volunteer firefighter. This would be a considerable accomplishment in its own right, but to add to the importance of the decision, she was the first woman in the department of record.
Her hard work and hours of training paid off this year. As she started her volunteering, she also had the opportunity to obtain her Emergency Medical Technician license through the Lee Fire Department. Today we are honored to recognize Erin as a Nationally Certified EMT-B and volunteer Firefighter/EMT, and she is Pro-Board Certified for Hazardous Materials at the Operations Level. We can assure you that this training is not an easy task.
Her volunteerism is selfless and highlights the community commitment that so many of our Berkshire Bank employees demonstrate. Erin’s volunteering includes weekly training and meetings, the response to fires and medical emergencies, helping vehicle crash victims, and many other situations from childbirth to restarting someone’s heart.
If that was not enough volunteering to get you tired, she is also involved in several activities throughout each year at the Fire Department. These are events that require hours of planning, set up, and coordination with others community organizations.
Now, don’t stop Erin there. Responding to emergencies is one part of her life of volunteerism. In 2013, she began volunteering for an organization called “Friends of Moe Golf Tournament,” which was organized to honor Maureen “Moe” Snyder, who passed away in 2003 after a battle with leukemia. Her life inspired her friends to start this tournament to honor her memory and raise funds to help those similarly afflicted. Each year they raise money to donate directly to local families in Southern Berkshire County.
“Volunteering not only makes me feel good that I am able to give back to my community and help others at what may be their worst moments, but I am hopefully teaching my daughters (Aged 20, 17, and 13) the value of volunteering and giving back.”
All of these events that Erin partakes in have months of preparations and planning; however, as you can tell from Erin’s story, she is more than capable of the task and more than happy to give back to her community.
