FARMINGTON — NorthStar ambulance service held its annual recognition and awards banquet during National EMS Week to honor its staff of emergency medical providers.

Tim Finn of Strong took top honors as Employee of the Year. The award recognizes the one employee who best represents NorthStar’s mission of professionalism, excellent patient care, community service, fiscal responsibility and overall excellence.

Above and Beyond awards given for actions and performances that are a cut above the norm went to Cassandra Purington, Alex Lynch, Carol Pillsbury and Jared Stinson.

EMS Dinosaur Awards were given to those serving 25 years or more. Recipients included NorthStar medical director Dr. Stephen Zanella, Carol Pillsbury, Lee Ireland, Mike Senecal, Wade Browne, Greg Drummond, Rod Koehn, Barry London, Peter Wade, Don Grondin, Kregg Kane, Jeremy O’Neil and Jeff Dresser.

Recognized for serving 15 or more years were Beth Scott, Chuck Twitchell, Earle Albert, Jane Clukey, Sherry Labbe, Harold Schaetzle, Ed Goodwin, Chris French, Corey Morse, Mark Rousseau, Shelby Rousseau, Matt Smith, Abbie Shamp and Stan Wilcox.

In a ceremony at the Hall of Flags in Augusta two days later, Lee Ireland, a NorthStar paramedic/operations manager, was presented an EMS Merit Award. Bestowed by Maine EMS, the award recognized Ireland’s involvement in establishing the first group of first responder services in Franklin County, as well as his many years of consistent and excellent patient care.