WABASHA, MN — Ten computer monitors shed the only light in the room.

SPARTANBURG COUNTY, SC — Saving lives is what they do.

MONROE, GA — When Virginia Watson was growing up, she had a very unorthodox dream for a little girl of her generation.

NORTH BRANFORD, CT — Phyllis Dunphy has been a dispatcher for the Town of North Branford for almost 30 years. She worked as a part-time dispatcher while driving a school bus from 1983 to 1985 before she was offered a full-time dispatching job at the North Branford Police Department.

LAS VEGAS, NV — They’ll likely never meet the people they help — or know if they lived or died. It’s too important to snag an address and phone number, not a person’s biography.

STAFFORD COUNTY, VA — One thing Stacy Ober can’t do in her job as a Stafford County 911 dispatcher is play God.

NEW CITY, NY — People reporting an emergency in Rockland and Westchester counties called 911 more than 1.6 million times in 2011, program administrators said.