Photo: Mercy Flight Was Here

It's pretty much impossible to drive around Genesee County the past couple of weeks and not see the signs: "Mercy Flight was here."

As you might have guessed, the signs are placed at locations where Mercy Flight has responded to an emergency medical situation, such as an accident or other dire health-related call.

According to Jeffrey Mendola, director of development & external affairs for Mercy Flight, about 300 such signs have been placed in Genesee County.

"The sign campaign is important to help the community understand the role we play and the role the first responders play," Mendola said. "They see where we've been and see it could be their community or their neighborhood."

Mercy Flight reviewed all of the calls that resulted in a helicopter landing at emergency scenes throughout Western New York in the past two years and selected 2,000 for sign placement. The 2,000 locations represent only a portion of Mercy Flight calls over the past 12 years.

The signs were placed at their locations by the volunteer fire departments that originally responded to the particular calls.

Calls of an overly sensitive nature, such as domestics, were excluded, as were locations that might have very low vehicle traffic volume.

Mendola said when he was at the Erie County Fair this past week, a couple from Warsaw said they counted at least 30 signs between their home and the fair.

Since the sign campaign started, traffic to Mercy Flight's Web site is up 50 percent, Mendola noted, which is important because at the site people can learn that Mercy Flight is a non-profit organization and also learn how to make a contribution to help cover the emergency medical agency's costs.