AFSCME Local 3566 Members Honored For Saving A Life

When an emergency strikes in a public park, help may be only minutes, or even seconds away. For Mercer County Park Rangers Ryan Shaw and Amy Jones, the training and preparation they had put in over the years made all the difference during a cardiac emergency last November.

Both members of AFSCME Local 3566, Shaw and Jones serve as Park Rangers with the Mercer County Park Commission, protecting and serving visitors and staff across approximately 10,000 acres of county park properties.

On Sunday, September 27, the two AFSCME members were recognized by Hamilton Elks Lodge #2262 for their actions that helped save a man's life. Jones received the lodge's First Responder of the Year Award, while Shaw was recognized as Distinguished Citizenship Award. Both awards recognize their work as first responders.

The awards came after a member of the Elks shared the story of the rescue with the lodge, which subsequently reached out to Shaw and Jones to ask if they would accept the honors.

A Call That Changed Everything

It was approximately 7:30 a.m. on an early November morning when Shaw and Jones were responding to an alarm call at a Mercer County Park facility. While they were en route, radio traffic alerted them to a cardiac-related emergency at another facility in the park.

The Rangers immediately responded with lights and sirens, arriving within a minute or two.

Jones dropped Shaw at the facility's entrance before repositioning their vehicle to allow additional emergency responders access. She also retrieved their medical bag, including oxygen.

When Shaw arrived, staff directed him toward an individual who was not breathing. Park staff had already taken critical action, using an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) that Shaw and Jones had serviced only weeks earlier.

The AED analyzed the patient and instructed responders to begin CPR.

Shaw immediately began CPR while communicating the situation over the radio and directing additional assistance to the scene. Jones quickly joined him and began setting up oxygen.

It was Jones' first CPR response call and her training took over.

"I know that teamwork is the driving factor in success during emergencies," Shaw said. "I rarely see composure during emergency situations such as what Amy showed on that CPR call."

Shaw and Jones had trained together repeatedly for situations like this, and that preparation proved critical. They continued CPR, administered oxygen and used the AED while coordinating with incoming emergency responders.

After approximately 10 minutes, EMS arrived and took over the scene. The patient eventually began breathing on his own and regained consciousness before being transported to a local hospital.

In total, the patient had gone roughly 30 minutes without breathing independently.

For Shaw and Jones, however, the rescue was never about two people acting alone.

"It was absolutely a team effort," Shaw said, pointing to the facility staff who recognized the emergency and knew what to do, the Park Rangers who responded, and the emergency response partners who arrived afterward.

Preparedness Saves Lives

The incident also demonstrated why public safety depends on more than the people responding to an emergency. It requires preparation, training and the resources to put that training into action.

That includes properly maintained AEDs, medical equipment, vehicles, personal protective equipment, communications systems and adequate staffing.

Both Shaw and Jones play active roles in preparing their fellow Rangers.

Shaw has approximately a decade of experience in public safety and previously served as Director of Security for a large regional mall and Manager of Contract Security for a psychiatric hospital. He holds a bachelor's degree in homeland security and emergency management and spent approximately four years as a volunteer firefighter.

He has been a Mercer County Park Ranger for about three years and has participated in multiple rescues. He also helps run and instruct the Park Commission's CPR and First Aid program and serves on the county's Office of Emergency Management committee.

Jones has been a Park Ranger for approximately four years. She graduated from Albright College with a bachelor's degree in criminology and sociology and originally joined the Park Rangers as an intern.

Her work now includes leading the Rangers' intern program, instructing CPR and First Aid, and helping obtain and distribute Narcan to park facilities for emergency deployment.

Even outside the more traditional responsibilities of the job, Jones has found herself answering calls for help, including one involving a cat stuck in a tree. She ultimately rescued the cat and adopted it, naming her Ekko.

More Than an Award

The rescue also earned Shaw and Jones the Mercer County Park Commission's Employee of the Month recognition in December 2025.

But the most meaningful moment came when they met the person they had helped.

At the Employee of the Month ceremony, the Rangers were able to speak with the survivor and meet his family. He told them how grateful he was that he would be able to spend the holidays with his family.

For Shaw, that is what being a first responder is ultimately about.

"I take great value in helping people on their worst days, and always will," he said. "I try to treat everyone who calls for help as if they were my own family member because they are to someone."

Jones credits the training and teamwork of her fellow Rangers for giving her the confidence to respond when the moment came.

"Although this was my first CPR response call, I believe that I was fully prepared to take action due to my realistic training of such scenarios with Ryan and the other Rangers," she said.

She added that she is constantly learning from her fellow Rangers and other departments throughout the park system in order to better serve the public.

For both AFSCME members, the recognition from the Hamilton Elks Lodge is an honor, but the real reward remains the same: knowing that preparation, teamwork and public service helped give someone another chance to be with their family.

Congratulations to Ryan Shaw and Amy Jones of AFSCME Local 3566 on this well-deserved recognition.