A national procession honoring 29 emergency medical service professionals who died in the line of duty made a stop in Albuquerque Wednesday.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – A national procession honoring 29 emergency medical service professionals who died in the line of duty made a stop in Albuquerque Wednesday. 

The procession left from California on Sunday. The procession is not only honoring people who gave their all to help others, but pushing Congress to create a permanent memorial in their honor in Washington, D.C.

“The police officers, the firefighters, they have a permanent memorial established by Congress. Emergency Medical Services is the only one of those three branches of public service that does not have that permanent memorial. We’re working very hard to try to do that,” said Scott Kasper with the American Medical Response Ambulance Services. 

The procession is headed to Colorado next. It will arrive in Washington, D.C. for the National EMS Weekend of Honor, which starts on July 18.