Cecilia Gaines Holland Recipient 2026
Betsy Lowry has been a member of the Parsippany Volunteer Ambulance Squad for 48 years, since she was a teenager. She initially went through training to obtain the basic certification, including defensive driving, first aid, CPR, extrication of people from vehicles and emergency childbirth. After the basics, she completed advanced training to be an Emergency Medical Technician. Over nearly five decades of volunteering as an EMT, she has held the positions of Captain, Deputy Chief and Chief of Operations, administratively, Treasurer, Vice-President and President. She has continued this volunteer commitment along with her career, family life and other community service.
A volunteer EMT is required to be on call for one 12-hour overnight shift per week, but Betsy commits to two per week. In addition, she covers one 24-hour weekend shift each month. She has assisted people in need of help after falls, victims of accidents in the home or vehicle, people with behavioral issues, and people with severe medical crises. She has performed CPR successfully innumerable times. She has delivered 26 babies throughout her volunteer career. For many years, she has also trained new members of the Ambulance Squad. Also, her service on the Squad has put her in contact with many club members in their or their loved ones’ time of need. She recently went “above and beyond” to go with a member’s son to South Carolina to visit the member, who had been hospitalized while on vacation there, and to accompany them back to New Jersey.
Betsy earned a B.S. degree in Public Health and has a long career as a certified clinical research professional who designs and monitors clinical studies for medical devices. This experience provides her with medical knowledge that complements and enhances her capability to provide excellent volunteer service as an EMT.
Betsy has also volunteered for 18 years at Morris County’s Domestic Violence Victims shelter. Each volunteer has to complete 40 hours of training before being allowed to interact with and counsel clients.
In addition, in our town, she is one of ten on the Crisis Response Team. When a domestic violence victim comes to the police station, police call in a CRT member to meet with the victim. The CRT person encourages the victim to make a safety plan and/or get a restraining order against the abuser. It takes an average of 8 contacts with the police and the CRT for the victim to have the courage to leave the abuser permanently and be admitted to the shelter.
Betsy has been a member of the Woman’s Club of Parsippany Troy Hills for over 16 years. She has given a CPR demo to club members, has served as Treasurer for 5 years and First VP for 2 years. She has always been a solid, dependable member who makes generous donations to the causes we support as well as donating her time. She certainly deserves the Cecilia Gaines Holland Award.