LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) — National EMS week is exactly what it sounds like — a chance to celebrate first responders who save lives every day.

“Thank you and to highlight what they do in our community every day which is serve all the citizens of our community when people have an emergency you know that’s who they call,” said John Parsons, a Lancaster County Commissioner.

Funding from the American Rescue Plan has helped provide some of that support — $5 million for Lancaster City and $400,000 to create an alliance of EMS programs in several Lancaster County communities.

“It’s important that we have this time where we say thank you to them and it is important that we support them and make sure that we continue to have those services that are very needed,” said Parsons.

The new “Municipal Emergency Services Authority of Lancaster County” will make saving lives easier for many people.

“It is a priority it’s a priority for us it’s really about public safety and making sure when someone calls for an ambulance or needs emergency treatment that they’re there are people there to do it and that that continues a lot of people take that for granted maybe but there’s a lot of pieces behind the scene that make that happen,” said Parsons.

“We just want to make sure that we’re supporting them that we’re saying thank you but that we’re also doing what we can to make sure that those organizations that provide these services continue to be able to provide the high-quality care that they do here to our citizens,” said Parsons.