Even Angels Need Some Help Every Now and Then

And that's exactly what I call the volunteers at the Urbanna Rescue Squad, angels, because they help their fellow man at any time, 24 hours a day, 365 days each year out of the goodness of their hearts. Why they do this, why they give so much of their time and energy to their community, I can only wonder. But they are always there for us and now it is time for us to be there for them.They need money in order to buy a very much needed new emergency vehicle which is veeeery expensive. Ready to hear the price?

A person should always be seated or lying down when asking how much something will cost. Thus, it was a good thing I was stretched out on the sofa when I recently asked Bob Straw over the telephone how much the new rescue squad equipment would cost.

"$105,000," he answered in his cool, cheery voice.

I gasped. The price got my attention. That kind of money will call for a LOT of community support. But Bob Straw is optimistic the squad can raise the money.

"We just filled out a grant request to Phillip Morris," he said proudly. "They offer grants to communities to help with projects like this to the tune of $5000-up to $40,000." I just hope the big "MO" will be very generous when stroking a check for Urbanna.

Straw and his enthusiastic band of rescue squad volunteers have another ace up their sleeve. The squad owns an acre plus commercial lot on Lord Mott Road. "We once thought we might build a station house over there, " Straw explained. "But we placed it on the market for $49,500 which will help us raise the money for the new emergency vehicle."

Cindy Callis is the Captain of the Urbanna rescue squad. Oh, how I like to hear of those qualified ladies taking command. She is one of the few volunteers who have earned the highest credentials, an EMBT cardiac which allows her to administer an IV, initiate EKG testing and dispense up to 30 different kinds of heart medicines right at the scene. The Urbanna squad has two other volunteers with this training, long time volunteers, Kathy Mechen and Cynthia Barlowe.

I asked Cindy, who came into the squad in 1990 (when Keith Townsend lost his partner and as a joke she offered to do the runs with him,), why do people volunteer in a job that is so difficult and so demanding of their time and energy? "We want to give something back to the community," Cindy answered. "It's my passion, I'll always do it," she added after a moment of reflection. "But I carry a lot of ghosts with me from my work... those whom we have saved... and those whom we have lost. In this work, you never forget anyone."

The Urbanna rescue Squad has been running short on volunteers for some time and presently have 6 paid paramedics on the staff to cover day shifts when most volunteers are busy with regular jobs. "My goal for the year is to be all-volunteer by the end of the year,"Cindy said.

Ken McCracken is an example of a professional paramedic who works on the peninsula full time and also teaches an advanced EMTB class in West Point where he is preparing 20 in advanced emergency medical tech basic life support along with the cardiac training.
Ken, a one time English instructor at Christchurch School, gave a total of 14 years as a volunteer to the Urbanna squad. When I asked him how many runs he made he guessed.... " at about ten runs a month for a period of 14 years, this translates to about 2000 calls." Each call takes about 2 hours or so since the squad transports the patient to either Riverside or Rappahannock Hospitals so this is well over 4000 hours.

It takes a special kind of person to do rescue squad work. "Not everyone is cut out for the job," Cindy admitted. "There's no grey area, you either can do it or you can't." Noting that EMT's have one of the highest burnout rates of any occupation in the nation, it's really amazing that the two Middlesex squads have such a loyal cadre of volunteers.

Cindy thought perhaps over 60 percent of the calls end up to be non-emergency calls. "We've transported a child to the hospital with an ear ache and we once picked up a person who had called for assistance who was standing in the driveway with a suitcase in hand who had surgery scheduled for that day and no transportation to the hospital." Cindy laughed. But the rescue squad turns no call for help down.

Along with the non-emergency calls there are plenty of the real stuff. Cindy and her fellow angels have many wonderful memories of saving lives. "Once with someone who had taken a drug overdose and we brought him back to life, I later saw him in the grocery store," Cindy reminisced. "He had received counseling and he had turned his life around and when he saw me he came over and hugged me and thanked me for saving his life. That makes all the hard work worthwhile."

Some elderly patients who are very ill and have made multiple trips in the squad units to the hospital become exhausted with the struggle for survival. Cindy said some have actually begged her to let them die. "That's not my job," Cindy always says while holding their hand and transporting them to the emergency room. Then she bows her head and prays a lot for guidance and strength all the way to the hospital.

Accident scenes often leave Cindy so upset at some of the tragic sights she must endure that she can't help but ask herself why she is doing this sort of volunteer work. "But then my professional training clicks in and I go to work relieving pain, providing comfort where ever I can and getting people to the hospital. But I couldn't do the work without a faith in God," the Captain said.

So now it's time for us to help our trusty band of angels. Won't you send the Urbanna Rescue Squad a check today? The address is P.O. Box 790, urbanna, VA 23175. Just tell them it's manna from heaven.

For someday you might be very glad you helped the angels. Because one day they might very well show up in their new emergency vehicle just for you.