SUNBURY -- As Pope Francis makes his way to the United States, people from the Keystone State are busy planning his arrival. That includes an ambulance crew from Sunbury. The Americus Hose Company is sending four of its paramedics to Philadelphia.
Pope Francis arrived in America around 4 p.m. Tuesday.
"I don't really know what to expect and that's part of the reason I want to go. It's just different. Here, you get the same kind of things. There, it's probably a whole different thing," Aaron Godlewski said.
"I wanted to go down there to help to be able to make sure everybody is being taken care of. Not have such stress on their services down there," Vanessa Leisenring said.
Vanessa Leisenring and Aaron Godlewski are two of the four paramedics making the trip. They and other EMS crews will be paid by PEMA, or Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, which is funded by taxpayer money. While in Philly they will stay in a gymnasium and will find out their assignments once they arrive to the city.
It's not the first time the Americus Hose Company helped out with a major event. A couple of its members responded to Hurricane Sandy.
"Hurricane Sandy for me was helping find people who were unaccounted for, things like that, going through houses," Godlewski said.
The crew says they will work in 12-hour shifts, around the clock all weekend.
"We'll be there doing what ever they ask us to and what ever they send us to do that's what we're going to do because we don't know what to expect," Leisenring said.
"For me it's exciting. It's just something different and like I said before, it's something out of the ordinary, something new to do," Godlewski said.
With expected crowds of around one million people, a lot more than Sunbury's population, they say it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
"If we get to see him it will be cool because where else are you going to get to see him but TV," Leisenring asked.
Berwick Ambulance and Union County West End are also sending crews. They will leave Friday and come home either Sunday or Monday.