ALICE, Texas — Have you ever dreaded waking up for the day because you didn’t get a good night’s sleep? It’s a problem that many adult Texans face, the CDC saying in a 2013 study that about 30% of Texans don’t get at least 7 hours of sleep. They said at least 7 hours of sleep will help Texans function and stay healthy.
That rough night’s sleep is all too familiar to Port Aransas’ EMS, but that’s all changing. Mattress Firm donated 10 new beds, bed frames, box springs, pillows, and mattress protectors to them.
Port Aransas’ EMS said they’ve had to move to 5 locations ever since Hurricane Harvey devastated their old station 4 years ago.
“We’ve moved from condos, we’ve been to a couple of motels a few times. We’ve been here about 5 months in this double wide,” Edwardo Jimenez, the Port Aransas EMS director said about their current station, located across the street from the old one.
Jimenez said he’s hoping they will be staying at the current station for a while before they get a newly built station. That new station though, was promised to them by the City and FEMA 3 years ago, but still…nothing. The lot is picked out, but nothing is built there.
In the meantime, Jimenez said the donated mattresses are making a big difference for the station and the community.
“I see this really as a benefit for the entire community because the health and wellness of our guys is important and this is just a huge factor in that and so I can’t put into words how grateful we are,” he said.
Joe Garza is an EMT for Port Aransas and said their old mattresses were not comfortable. Imagine this: lumpy and uneven. He said the mattresses didn’t make for a good night’s sleep.
“We spend a lot of time here and when we’re not on calls, it’s important that we get our rest so that we’re ready to go in the middle of the night at a moment’s notice and good mattresses have a big role to play in that,” Garza said.
Christopher Dunn is the Senior Executive for Mattress Firm South Texas and said the Port Aransas EMT’s deserve it because they work so hard at serving the community.
“We just simply answered the call, much like Port Aransas EMS answers our call in a life-threatening situation. We depend on Port Aransas EMS,” Dunn said.
