The Cadet EMT Leadership Initiative puts high school students on the front lines, earning certifications, saving lives, and building careers in emergency medicine before graduation.
"When volunteers left for work each morning, Bolton's ambulance sat idle. We solved it by training the students who were already there."
In 1987, the Bolton Volunteer Ambulance Service faced a crisis hidden in plain sight: daytime coverage. As working adults left for jobs outside town each morning, emergency response times climbed. The community needed a solution that didn't depend on traditional volunteers.
The answer was the students at Nashoba Regional High School. By training high school sophomores and juniors as certified EMTs, Bolton could maintain reliable daytime coverage, and in doing so, created one of the most distinctive and impactful youth programs in Massachusetts.
Nearly four decades later, the program continues to serve the towns of Bolton, Lancaster, and Stow through the Nashoba Regional School District, producing over 600 certified EMTs who have gone on to careers in medicine, public safety, and community leadership.