- May 7, 2024
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The life of a dispatcher is one full of long hours and a bit of stress — especially during disasters.
Following Hurricane Irma’s rampage through the state weeks ago, many local governments, especially in the southern part of the state, are still in need of assistance.
And assistance is exactly what the Collier County Sheriff’s Office EOC in Naples required last week when they were in desperate need of dispatchers to volunteer.
Heeding the call, two Winter Park Police Department dispatchers — Vonda Jones and Doreen Sabatino — made the three-and-a-half-hour trip south to help.
“I got the notification in reference to the need, and at that point, I needed to get approval through my chief — as far as being authorized to actually go,” Jones said. “So once my chief authorized it, we left on Sunday, and we were there assisting Collier County from Sunday through Friday morning.”
The Telecommunicator Emergency Response Task Force and Association of Public Safety Communications Officials sent the request on behalf of Collier County — helping to man the call center to assist handling whatever calls came through.
The calls in general were pretty standard, Sabatino said, but that was only an aspect of the work that they were doing. For Sabatino, it was also about helping out fellow dispatchers during a time of great need.
“It can be very stressful,” Sabatino said. “Giving them that mental break, where it’s one less thing for them to worry about on top of everything else that they’re going through — that’s why I did it.”
During the week, Jones and Sabatino lived in and worked out of the Collier County EOC. They were provided meals, hot showers and cots to sleep on after working long shifts from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
As soon as they arrived, Jones and Sabatino were thrown straight into a quick two- to three-hour crash course on the CAD system that Collier County utilized. It was totally different than what they were use to in Winter Park.
Along with learning a new system, there was also the need to learn the geographic area better to best help those who were calling.
“The other call-takers, operators, as well as the supervisors were there right along with us and were able to help us,” Jones said. “There were times where they would jump in on the call and took information, so they were very, very helpful.”
Along with the help from the others in the Collier County EOC, both Jones and Sabatino had past experience on which to rely. Sabatino started her dispatching career in Altamonte Springs in 2001 and has been with the WPPD for the last nine years. Jones has been working as a dispatcher since 1996 and has been with WPPD for 17 years. She also has served as the manager of the Emergency Communication Center in Winter Park for the past decade.
All that experience helped prepare them for this situation.
“You get adapted to it — I hate to say that — in this kind of work,” Sabatino said.
Jones agreed and said between recent experiences with Irma in Winter Park and also past hurricanes such as Jeanne and Frances, they were ready.
“We had our own hurricane experience just the week prior — we were on call, we started at 8 a.m. Sunday morning and we worked here, we slept here at the public safety building and ate here for two days,” Jones said.
The last few weeks for Jones and Sabatino have been long and stressful, and the same goes for many others working in emergency departments around the state.
The good news for the two local dispatchers though, is that they’re back home in the comfort of their own beds — though their experience helping those in Collier County will not be forgotten.
“No matter where we go or what we do, the fundamentals are always the same,” Sabatino said. “The attitude of ‘this is my family coming in to help me.’ It gave me that pride in what I do.”
