LEWISTON – A nationwide air medical group has honored the LifeFlight Foundation, presenting the nine-year-old helicopter service and its charity arm with it’s first community service award.

The reason: a rapidly growing network of technology and support for its air ambulance. Think helipads, among other things.

When LifeFlight began, Maine was the last state in America to draw on air medical service, said Tom Judge, LifeFlight’s executive director.

In 1998, a call for help to Rumford forced police to shut down a section of Route 2 to land, Judge said.

“We knew that we had to create a better system,” he said.

By the time LifeFlight reaches its 10-year anniversary, almost every hospital in Maine – including Rumford – will have a helipad. And more than two dozen hospitals will have technology in place for helicopters to land with nothing but the aid of their instruments.

On Monday, Gov. John Baldacci presented the award from the National Association of Air Medical Services to LifeFlight personnel.

A crew member showed the governor one of the program’s helicopters. Then, Baldacci congratulated the service, aiming to downplay any suggestion that the aircraft was a luxury.

“This helicopter was out six times yesterday,” he said. “It is no frill.”

In 2003, Maine voters approved a $3 million bond to aid the program. It included $2.6 million for helipads and aviation improvements.

It also included $400,000 to help purchase a mobile human patient simulator.

The simulator, built inside an RV, was unveiled last August as a roving classroom,

Inside, a pair of high-tech mannequins do many of the things real patients might do: bleed, seize and vomit.

Medical staff can give them shots, put in a breathing tube and even perform amputations. Meanwhile, closed circuit cameras record everything.

“This project is a public-private partnership at its best – working together can help improve our health system and our economy, while making each stronger for the people of Maine,” Baldacci said.