Saving lives, serving others: Flanders Northampton ambulance is recruiting new members

It’s come a long way since 1985 when about a dozen volunteers shared four pagers and worked out of a station wagon that was “stationed” in someone’s driveway, but the Flanders Northampton Volunteer Ambulance is still looking to grow.

The corps recruited four new members this week, board member Paul Fizzuoglio said Saturday at FNVA’s annual open house and recruitment day. FNVA currently has 55 members on its roster, he said. About 35 members are active responders handling the corps’ 1,000-plus EMS calls each year. The remaining volunteers play important roles keeping the corps organized, handling fundraising and the like, said founding member Ronald Hintze.

“Just because you belong to the ambulance corps doesn’t mean you have to go out on calls, and deal with the blood and guts,” Hintze said. There’s a role for everyone.

The 30-square-mile Flanders Northampton Volunteer Ambulance district was incorporated in 1984. It ran its first call in May 1985 and became the first volunteer N.Y. state-certified ambulance in Suffolk Co. in 1988. In addition to its residential areas, the district includes the eastern campus of Suffolk County Community College, the county center and the county jail.

At the beginning, about a dozen volunteers shared four pagers, Hintze said. The corps’ first rig was a station wagon and, because FNVA lacked a headquarters, it was kept in a member’s driveway.

“It’s a good feeling,” to see how the organization has grown over the past three decades, said Hintze, who serves on its board of directors.

“It’s like that old movie It’s a Wonderful Life because everybody we touch touches someone else,” Hintze said. “We volunteer just to help the community. It’s nice to see everybody come together for all the right reasons.”

Yesterday’s open house featured food and refreshments, a bouncy house and water slide for kids and demonstrations of various equipment and procedures, including the extrication of a “victim” from an automobile using the “jaws of life” (pictured above.)

For more information about FNVA visit its website. 

Click here to watch a video retrospective of the FNVA’s calls and activities. 

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Emil Breitenbach Jr.
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