By Clark Judge
(June 2, 2024) — When Jenn and Brian Carroll took over as co-directors of Deer Lake last summer, someone suggested they look into becoming EMTs. That someone was outgoing director Patty Clifton, who, along with husband Mark, had overseen Deer Lake the previous four decades and who, like Mark, had been an EMT with the Killingworth Ambulance Association.
“It wasn’t part of the job description,” Patty said. “It was just a personal requirement of Mark and me.”
That was less than a year ago, and what happened? If you were at Killingworth’s annual Memorial Day parade Monday, you know.
The Carrolls not only were part of a KAA contingent of EMTs dressed in white blouses and blue trousers, but Brian helped carry their banner while Jenn joined others walking behind. Had you known what they’d been through since arriving in Killingworth last year, that scene would have been unimaginable. But if you were Patty Clifton, you would understand.
Becoming EMTs was a personal requirement of Jenn and Brian Carroll, too.
“Volunteering as an EMT is something I sought out since at least 2001,” Brian said. “It’s been a long-term goal of mine, but the training requirements just didn’t align with my previous employment. So when we had an opportunity to do it here, we jumped at it.”
Following Clifton’s advice, they signed up for a fall EMT course at the KAA last year. They attended nearly 180 hours of classes between August and December, passed practical exams and joined in “ride-alongs” on ambulance runs out of Bridgeport and Killingworth before graduating this spring as certified EMTs. That’s a normal continuum for aspiring techs, except for one catch: There is nothing normal about the path that Jenn and Brian took.
They’d been recruited by Mark and Patty Clifton to succeed them as caretakers of Deer Lake in September, 2023, or several months after Brian retired from twenty-six years with the U.S. Coast Guard. But that itinerary was accelerated after Mark Clifton unexpectedly passed away in February of that year, leaving his wife alone to handle what was designed to be a gradual transition … but wasn’t.
Especially for the Carrolls.
Brian had grown up in Clinton and worked at Deer Lake as a Day Camp counselor. But this was a new locale for a family who had spent the previous four years in Puerto Rico and included two sons — one (Owen) who was entering his senior year of high school and the other (Mathias) an incoming freshman. On top of that, there was no home waiting for them … at least, no permanent home.
The 1930’s colonial where the Cliftons resided … and where Jenn and Brian intended to live … was in such dire need of repairs that they couldn’t spend a night there until this week. Instead, they moved into a vacant house donated by a board member of Pathfinders, Inc., the non-profit that bought Deer Lake, with most of their belongings stored in the basement.
“I’ve still been living out of the bags I flew with from Puerto Rico,” said Jenn. ”We haven’t unpacked yet.”
Can’t Do It All at Once? They’re Trying
As co-directors of Deer Lake, the Carrolls assumed an enormous task that included a complete overhaul of … well, everything. They developed business processes to operate Deer Lake without the Boys Scouts. They renovated a 100-year-old house. And the office within the house. Bathrooms. Bedrooms. Roof. Surrounding buildings. Equipment. Schedules. Website. Contacts. Contracts. You name it. All had to be updated or reconditioned in collaboration with Pathfinders.
“They say you can’t do it all at once,” Jenn said, “but I guess we’re trying.”
If you didn’t find Brian or Jenn in their newly renovated Deer Lake office this spring, one or both would be somewhere nearby … painting … mowing … planting …repairing tractors … working with volunteers to update the camp’s waterfront. On top of that, they’d then sit through EMT classes that ran four hours on weeknights and eight hours on Saturdays … while Brian and son Owen spent another ten hours getting certified as lifeguard instructors … and Jenn completed forty additional hours of training in New Hampshire to be certified as a Wilderness EMT.
I think you get the idea. They’re busy.
“We’re working seven days a week,” Brian said. “And most days we’re pushing twelve hours on average.”
Asked the last time they had a day off, the two looked at each other before Jenn answered.
“Easter,” she said. “We had the morning off. Every night around 9 p.m., our kids ask, ‘Is there a plan for dinner?’ “
With that, the two laughed. And that’s what makes this picture so unusual. What seems so complicated actually isn’t. In the end, everything somehow works out. The Carrolls are living a new and demanding life, yet it’s precisely what they want.
“Something We Wanted to Do”
“Helping someone as an EMT, watching the excitement of visitors who see Deer Lake for the first or hundredth time and living in this amazing place makes it all worthwhile,” Jenn said.
So, while she and Brian agree that they could have postponed EMT classes another year, they didn’t. Instead, they had a plan that followed Patty Clifton’s advice … and completed it.
“Every time we got in the car to go to class,” Brian said, “we’d look at each other and say, ‘What are we doing?’ “
But they knew. So they kept on driving.
“It was a struggle,” Jenn conceded, “but it was something we did and wanted to do. When we were getting ready to retire, one of the things I looked forward to the most was living somewhere we could be part of the community, and this was a great step toward that.
“The timing wasn’t ideal, but it was sort of a now-or-never thing. Working here and having it (the class) close, we thought we should take it. So we just said, ‘Let’s get it done.’ “
And they did. Now they’re the third married couple to serve as KAA techs (Mike and Marguerite Haaga, and James Fretz and Mary Robbenhaar-Fretz are the others). Unlike James and Mary, however, the two don’t work together. If one is on an emergency call, the other is at Deer Lake. Nevertheless, they each have the trust of their KAA colleagues, who extolled their patience, flexibility, compatibility and knowledge of procedural skills.
“They’re confident and competent,” said KAA president Dan O’Sullivan.
They’re also extraordinary. They were asked to oversee Deer Lake, and they did it. They were asked to live out of suitcases for nearly a year, and they did it. They were asked to work twelve-hour days while raising two high-school sons, and they did it. And they were urged to become EMTs.
They did that, too.
“They’re really strong, resilient individuals,” said Patty Clifton. “You don’t find people like that anymore.”
Yes, you do. They were there Monday, walking with the Killingworth Ambulance Association at Killingworth’s Memorial Day parade.
Photos by Clark Judge
