Fayetteville, WV (WOAY) – Three dispatchers at the Fayette County 911 Center have received national recognition for their work behind the headset. Bertha Blankenship, Joseph Lambert and Aerinique Rogers each earned the Sunshine Dispatcher Award from Gold Line Support, a national nonprofit for 911 telecommunicators.
Blankenship has been a dispatcher for eight years and serves as the Gold Line’s West Virginia state ambassador.
“What the Sunshine Dispatch Award is, and what it means, is anyone that goes above and beyond their professionalism in any kind of calls … kept their team spirit, kept everybody motivated … gets that award,” Blankenship said.
She said dispatchers carry a heavy weight in a job where they rarely learn how emergencies end.
“We want people to understand we are human, we make mistakes,” Blankenship said. “We’re the last ones to know any ending to it. We never get that closure.”
Blankenship said dispatchers face difficult situations every day, in both their professional and personal lives, but keep showing up because the center is open around the clock.
“We have difficult situations every day that we face, not only in our professional but also in our personal life, and we differentiate the two,” she said. “We still come to work because we’re open 24 seven.”
Joseph Lambert supervises the B shift at Fayette County 911. Blankenship said she nominated him for the way he keeps his team together through difficult calls.
“I was kind of shocked. Yeah, I didn’t expect it whatsoever,” Joseph Lambert said. “We have debriefings at the end of the shift. A lot of us are friends outside of work, too. We talk outside of work. We call each other on the way home from work.”
His ask of the public: remember there is another human being on the other end of the line when calling for help.
“I want them to know we exist,” Lambert said. “I think people don’t really think about our existence very often … We try our best. We always try our best.”
To learn more about Gold Line Support and its awards, or to nominate a dispatcher, visit goldlinesupport.com.
