News

Wayne Volunteer EMS Squad Celebrates 75 Years

12/27/2018

WAYNE TOWNSHIP, NJ – During a February 1942 cold snap, eight people lost their lives in Wayne Township in the span of a week; two died in a fire, five in a traffic accident, and one was hit by a train. Without a first aid squad of their own, township residents at that time relied on ambulance services from neighboring communities and nearby Paterson hospitals when sickness or injury struck.

Deeply moved by such tragedy and recognizing the need for more-local assistance, a handful of concerned citizens formed the Wayne Township Memorial First Aid Squad in 1943. A year later, with a recycled 1942 Buick hearse for an ambulance and a facility secured—on the Oak Street property of the organization’s first president, William Taylor—the squad answered its first call Sept. 1, 1944. Before long, the Wayne squad also began providing mutual aid to other communities.

A decade later, with the addition of a 1952 Cadillac, the organization became a “two-vehicle squad.” After moving to their new building on Taylor Drive in the early 1950s, squad members saw the need for a second building, across town on Hamburg Pike, to better serve the rapidly growing community.

Seventy-five years later, the squad is thriving, with 80 active members, all EMTs, answering 5,115 calls last year. Today’s squad boasts five ambulances, a heavy rescue mobile ambulance bus, mass casualty trailers, chiefs’ cars and two boats.

Headquarters is now on Rohrbach Memorial Way. The Hamburg Pike satellite building still allows the squad to better assist the township’s approximately 55,000 residents spread over nearly 24 square miles.

“We’ve come a long way in 75 years,” squad President David Spera said. “I think our emphasis on training, obtaining state-of-the-art equipment whenever possible and focusing on excellent patient care have kept our organization robust all these years.”

Despite the Passaic County squad’s growth and obvious improvements during the last seven-plus decades, two things have not changed.

“We’re still 100 percent volunteer, and on duty 24 hours a day, every day of the year,” Spera said.

In 2007, the squad was honored as New Jersey’s “Outstanding Volunteer EMS Agency.”

Mayor Christopher Vergano, a former squad president, has nothing but praise for the group he once led.

“Being a squad member requires an incredible amount of time, dedication and sacrifice,” he said. “It takes special people to leave their families—especially on holidays, weekends, at night, and sometimes in terrible weather—to run to the aid of a stranger.

“Even if they might not realize how much work goes into being a volunteer EMT, the people of Wayne certainly appreciate having such a dedicated group looking out for them,” Vergano said.

He noted that in an ever-growing community, where the number of annual squad calls increased from 3,300 in 1997 to an all-time high of 5,160 in 2015, a dependable, well-trained squad is essential.

“We’ve called on our volunteers time and again, during natural and man-made disasters as well as day in and day out for individual health crises,” Vergano said. “They’ve always come through and remain prepared for anything.”

Vergano also noted the volunteers’ service saves the township the cost of hiring EMS responders.

“It would cost millions to replace our volunteers with a paid service,” he said. “What we have in place now, neighbors helping neighbors, is priceless.”

Just as precious is the camaraderie among members. Whether they joined last month or decades ago, squad members view the organization as extended family.

“The squad is a second family for most of us, held together by our volunteer spirit and love of helping others,” said David Schimmel, a squad veteran of more than 40 years and longtime state director of the EMS Council of New Jersey’s (EMSCNJ) Mobilization and Disaster Services. “I’ve made lifelong friends here.”

In 1973 the organization established a youth squad, now known as the cadet corps, that allowed individuals ages 16-18 to serve in an auxiliary capacity. Many of those cadets remained active with the squad well into adulthood, said 20-year member Mary Claire Shiber, who also chairs the EMSCNJ’s cadet scholarship program.

“The squad youth of five, 10, 20 years ago contribute greatly to the strength of our organization today,” she said. “We always welcome new members.”

In 1968, the squad welcomed women as members, invaluable for their availability at the time to fill daytime duty slots. Today, approximately half of the squad’s members are women, riding duty crews day and night.

“The squad has had more than 500 members in 75 years,” Schimmel said. “With so many businesses and large shopping centers, as well as three major highways intersecting the township, we are already one of the busiest squads in the area. That’s why our member recruitment and retention efforts are crucial.”

Schimmel attributes focus on high-quality, frequent training as one reason the squad has remained vibrant.

“In the early days of EMS, there was very little training,” he said. “It was ‘swoop and scoop’ to get patients to the hospital as quickly as possible. Today, everyone must renew their EMT certification, which is state regulated, and CPR skills on a regular basis.

“After 9/11, and because of our close proximity to New York City, we’ve added incident command and mass-casualty incident courses,” Schimmel said. “Squad members also must demonstrate competency in using all of our equipment, from defibrillators and radios, EpiPens and oxygen, wound dressings and cervical collars, to ambulances and boats.”

Despite the many hours the volunteers contribute for duty crews, training, maintaining their buildings and equipment, and events such as community education and standing by at school football games—in addition to their home, work and school commitments—they also must find time to raise money for the organization. Funds for purchasing and maintaining supplies and equipment, providing training and covering day-to-day operating expenses come from annual spring and fall fund drives, fund-raising events throughout the year and memorial donations.

“It costs the squad about $100 every time an ambulance rolls out of the building for a call, yet we don’t charge for our services,” Shiber said. “We encourage anyone who is able to make a donation to please do so.”

In addition to helping others, meeting neighbors and making friends, benefits of joining the squad include:

· free EMT and CPR training

· tuition reimbursement for courses taken at Passaic County College

· free membership to Wayne Township pools and lakes

· full workers compensation insurance

· annual clothing allowance for squad-related attire

· annual $1,365 LOSAP contribution

For information on joining the Wayne Township Memorial First Aid Squad, visit www.waynefas.org, call (973) 694-9263 or stop by one of the squad buildings.