Youngwood man receives first Beck EMS & Fire scholarship

The Andrew Logan Beck EMS & Fire Scholarship Fund that was formed shortly after the 23-year-old Mt. Pleasant firefighter’s sudden death in January has awarded Nic Blahovec $1,000 toward his tuition in his paramedic program.

“I am grateful for winning the scholarship,” Blahovec said. “It is an outstanding idea due to the fact that there aren’t many other ones geared to people going into this job field.”

Blahovec, 22, of Youngwood, is enrolled in the Mutual Aid- Excela Health Paramedic Program in Greensburg. He said this career path always has interested him because he likes to help people.

He is exactly the kind of candidate Beck would want to help, said Kevin Hendrick, who along with Beck’s mother, Sherri Miller, co-founded the organization to provide tuition assistance to high school students and adults to attend EMT, paramedic and firefighter training.

“Andy had a big vision of how we could do better in EMS and Fire,” Hendrick said. “He had a big heart, and it would make him happy to help someone like Nic.”

Beck was a volunteer EMT with the Kecksburg Volunteer Rescue Squad and worked for Irwin Volunteer Fire Department EMS in his career that was cut short by a blood clot.

Hendrick said the group raised around $5,000 so far for the scholarship fund through donations, T-shirt sales and raffles. The average donor gave $50.

To pick a winner, he redacted the names from the applications and presented them to the rest of the seven members who make up the committee. Those members then chose based on essays and letters of recommendations the applicants submitted with their entry.

Hendrick said they are looking to award two more scholarships in January and eventually they would like to do even more.

“We would like to fund every application we get,” Hendrick said.

“We will be working hard in Andy’s honor.”