Lori Steineck
The Repository, Canton, Ohio
CANTON, Ohio — Former Canton firefighter/paramedic and union president Rosario Carcione left the department in 2014 to become a pharmacist.
On Monday morning, he remembered his former fellow firefighters with a gift aimed at keeping them healthy — hand sanitizer.
“Things have worked out well for me and this is also a good way to pay back, I feel,” Carcione said.
He hopes “to assist my brothers and sisters of the Canton Fire Department to help keep them safe during this pandemic. I know first-hand how these men and women put their lives in danger each day to help those throughout the community. This is just our way to thank them for their continued heroic efforts and to help keep them safe.”
Carcione started pharmacy school while he was still union president of the Canton Firefighters Association. Two years after he ended his 15-year career as a city firefighter, Carcione graduated in 2016.
He went on to become junior partner in a Green firm, Compounding Pharmacy of Green.
Still in touch with many of the men and women from his former job, he is putting his new skills to work in hope of helping to keep them safe.
“Due to the shortage of hand sanitizer due to Covid-19, the FDA is allowing compounding pharmacies to make hand sanitizer,” he said.
The shortage of alcohol used to manufacture sanitizer hasn’t made it easy.
“As soon as the alcohol comes in, we make more,” he said.
Carcione and his new co-workers have donated hand sanitizer to two nursing homes - the Greenview Senior Assisted Living center in Green and the Bethany Nursing Home in Canton.
And on Monday, he brought 30 48-ounce bottles to the Canton Fire Department.
The bottles will be kept aboard the ambulances and fire engines, used by crews dealing with trauma and other emergency cases.
“We hope to get enough out there to help everyone,” Carcione said.
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