by Bea Peterson
At the annual banquet of the Town of Hoosick Rescue Squad Saturday evening at Guiseppe’s Restaurant Master of Ceremonies Beth Cipperly reported that 25 people, 15 full time riding members, seven associate members from the Squad’s pilot program with neighboring fire departments and three junior members responded to 783 calls. “We have every night of the week covered,” she said. “A team is assigned to a night. Days are pretty much catch as catch can. When the call goes out, whoever is available responds.” Often that is Pat Sinacore who responded to 436 calls last year.
The squad covers all of Hoosick and parts of White Creek. Of the 783 calls, 450 were daytime and the other 333 were at night. More than half the cases were taken to Southwestern Vermont Medical Center. The calls averaged more than an hour and a half each. A total of 2,955.7 man hours were expended, and the Squad traveled 14,715 miles. One hundred and five times they were assisted by squads from Bennington, Cambridge and Southwestern Vermont. Twice they were assisted by helicopter crews.
The calls included 257 difficulty breathing/cardiac related, 154 illnesses, 150 injuries, 73 accidents, 71 fires, 15 bleeding/hemorrhages, 12 overdoses, 7 mental health related, 3 pregnancies and 41 miscellaneous events including parades and game standbys. Not bad for a group that ranges in age from 24 to 73, with an average age of 59 years.
“The average lifetime of a volunteer was once calculated at 1.75 years,” said Cipperly.
“Proudly the Town of Hoosick has eight active riding members who have been here over 20 years. They are Bill Gaillard – 42 years, Pat Sinacore – 33, Sue Eddy – 30, Rita Kittel – 28, Beth Cipperly – 26, Carol Hanselman – 25, RoseAnn Miller – 22 and John May – 20.
“Like every volunteer here,” she said, “we put our families second. We open ourselves up to every disease and every scenario imaginable. We sometimes haven’t the foggiest idea what we are getting into. We go because we were called.” Cipperly pointed out that Fire fighters in many volunteer departments receive a retirement compensation, while EMS personnel do not.
Answering The Call
During 2008 Shaun Blair responded to 30 calls, Beth Cipperly – 62, Susan Eddy – 49, Bill Gaillard – 342, Carol Hanselman – 24, Ben Katzman – 52, Robyn Kessler – 4, Rita Kittel -101, Debbie Lohnes – 134, John May – 34, RoseAnn Miller – 72, T. Niles – 49, Georgia Parker – 139, Ron Sampath – 55, Pat Sinacore – 436. Junior members responding were Bryan Amidon – 30 calls, Justin Carter – 19 and Nick Hunt – 16. Drivers included Eric Amidon – 16 calls, Alan Bornt – 5, Cory Kessler – 10, John Lettre – 58, John Parker – 5, Robert Bornt – 7, Paul Davendonis – 5 and Ted Senecal – 4.
Officers
Officers for 2008 were Bill Gaillard – President, Debbie Lohnes – Vice-President, RoseAnn Miller – Treasurer, Susan Eddy – Accounts Payable and Beth Cipperly – Captain.
2009 Officers are John May – President and Rita Kittel – Vice President. RoseAnn Miller remains Treasurer and Susan Eddy remains in charge of Accounts Payable. The 2009 Board of Directors includes Carol Hanselman, Georgia Parker, Pat Sinacore, Beth Cipperly, Ron Sampath and Bill Gaillard.