‘I want to be here to help’: Dispatcher shows compassion in her service

A dispatcher with Orangeburg County Emergency Medical Services is being recognized for not just being a hard worker, but being concerned about the welfare of others, including her fellow co-workers.

Loretta Hunter is working part-time in a field she has grown to love. With a calm, soothing voice and a caring spirit, she has worked through stressful situations with a sincere concern for the suffering and misfortunes of others.

Hunter’s concern for others has led the Orangeburg County Community of Character initiative to honor her for displaying compassion.

Hunter loves being a dispatcher.

“It’s a very stressful job, but if it’s something that you really want to do and you learn how to do it, it becomes a part of you. It’s very actionable, good and bad, because we have a lot of stressful calls. We see a lot of stressful things, but it’s just exciting to me, and I want to be a part of it on both sides,” she said.

The E-911 dispatcher came to Orangeburg County as a dispatcher in 1998 before retiring in 2018, though not for long.

“I returned back in 2018 to help out part time, and I’ve been here ever since helping part time,” Hunter said.

Compassion requires her to sometimes go beyond her standard job duties.

“I’m the type of person that likes to try to be able to put myself in somebody else’s shoes. I want to look into things more from both sides because for every story, there’s more than one side to it. But you look at it as it is presented to you, and then you put yourself in somebody else’s shoes,” Hunter said.

“I’m just a doer. I always tell them I get in where I fit in. I say,

‘If you need me, call me.’ That’s just me all around,” she said.

Hunter’s warmth and caring nature has served her well, including among her co-workers, who know they can talk to her about things that are bothering them. She said it is compassion that drives her desire to help them.

“To me, it’s about the well-being of others. What can I do to help you do better? Even when I was in management, I never asked them about their personal business, but one thing they did know is if they brought it to me, that’s where it was kept. The only way it would get out is they would have to talk about it. I’m open-eared and I’m open-minded, and I just work from that,” she said.

Hunter said she does not let the stresses of her job diminish her spirit.

“If you treat every phone call that you receive like they’re a member in your family, you will do good always. Everybody is going to take care of their family. … It’s a stressful job. You can vent about it later, but give the people what they need. Try to give the people the encouragement to stop doing whatever they’re trying to do, or help them to get the help that they need,” she said.

She attributed her caring nature to her parents, who ran a strict, but compassionate household.

“There wasn’t anything they wouldn’t do for anybody. It’s like we couldn’t go in anybody else’s house and eat, but everybody could come to our house and eat. I’m just carrying it on,” Hunter said.

While health reasons forced her retirement, she plans to continue to work part-time for as long as she can.

“If I didn’t retire for health reasons, I would still be a full-time employee, but I need those breaks and I’m getting older. Things are changing, but I’m moving right along with the change and doing the best that I can do with it.

“So I can’t say when I’m going to stop, but right now it’s indefinite. If that good old man upstairs says, ‘Your time is out,’ then it’s over, but right now it’s indefinite because I want to be here to help. I love this county, and I love the people in it,’ Hunter said.