[Editor’s Note: New Canaan EMS celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. To mark the milestone, the New Canaanite is publishing profiles of members each month in 2025. This is the second in the series, written by Wendy Fog, herself a longtime EMT with the organization.]
Elizabeth Guthke Buckner is a true New Canaan “original.”
NCHS Class of 1992 “Perannos” yearbook photo
She and her parents moved here in 1976 when she was about three years old. Lizzy attended East School, Saxe Middle School and graduated from New Canaan High School in 1992. As long as she can remember, Lizzy just knew she wanted to work in health care, she said. She loved watching the ambulance, the fire trucks and the police cars come racing by her house on the way to answering a call for help. In fact, many people in her downtown New Canaan neighborhood were policemen, volunteer firemen and EMTs with the newly formed Ambulance Corps.
As Lizzy grew up, she decided she wanted to go to Nursing School, and as soon as she was old enough, began to work at the New Canaan Inn – a position she held through high school and college. She volunteered at the Red Cross, took courses at Norwalk Community College, graduated with a bachelor’s of science degree in nursing from Western Connecticut State University and an master’s of science degree in nursing from Sacred Heart University, worked at Greenwich and Stamford Hospitals, and was a nurse in New Canaan Public Schools.
Lizzy Buckner
During those times, she met and married the love of her life, New Canaan town employee and volunteer fireman Ben Buckner, whose support and love have seen her through all the hard times. Oh, yes, along the way, they also raised two children all while riding her night and weekend ambulance shifts.
For 30 years, Lizzy has dedicated herself to emergency medical services mentoring new EMTs. Her advice to those just entering the field is simple yet profound: “You have to fall in love with it. You have to want to make a difference and want to have the answers.”
Her passion for helping others extends far beyond the ambulance. After raising her children and working multiple jobs, Lizzy is now a professor of nursing at Sacred Heart. Her lifelong commitment to healthcare and education has left a lasting impact on both the EMS community and the students she teaches.
Lizzy’s heart and soul are still grounded in the work she does for her hometown at the New Canaan Volunteer Ambulance Corps, now officially NCEMS.
She said, “This is where I met my closest friends and people who became my family”.
When people meet Lizzy, they immediately see that she is embarrassed by any attention to herself. Her motto is “making a difference but not making a splash,” she said. Her passion for helping others and being part of a close-knit community has defined her life. She has instilled these values in her children, who have carried them forward as they build their own successful futures.
Lizzy said she’s grateful for all the help she has had along the way from so many people, and is grateful to be able to “pay it forward.” For Lizzy, EMS is more than a career—it’s a calling. And thanks to her, many others have answered it, too.
Her regular shift at NCEMS is Thursday nights.