Apple Honda makes $50,000 donation to Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps capital campaign for new headquarters

Apple Honda General Manager Bill Fields presented Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps with a $50,000 donation this afternoon at the ambulance corps’ Osborn Avenue headquarters.

The donation will support the construction of a new headquarters for the ambulance corps, which the corps outgrew almost as soon as it was completed in 1989. 

The existing facility doesn’t have enough space to house the ambulances RVAC uses to answer about 5,000 calls annually, requiring ambulances to be parked outside, exposed to the elements. It doesn’t have enough room to accommodate group training classes, which are essential for training new volunteers and keeping existing members up to date on changes in protocols, techniques and equipment. It lacks space for members to rest or sleep while on stand-by at headquarters overnight. It lacks adequate office and meeting space. In addition, it’s not a climate-controlled facility, which presents challenges with storage of and ready access to medications when members respond to headquarters to answer a call.

The current headquarters also does not meet the standards of state and federal laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, RVAC President Garret Lake said. 

RVAC has sought a new, expanded headquarters for years, but funding an expansion has always been a hurdle the Town of Riverhead has not had the resources to overcome. The town ambulance district, of which the Town Board is the governing body, owns RVAC’s building and the property where it sits, next to the highway department. The Riverhead Ambulance District contracts with RVAC, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, to provide emergency medical services to the district, which stretches across the town, excluding the territory of the Wading River Fire District, which runs its own rescue service.

Current plans for a new headquarters, to be built on the same site, will provide six bays deep enough to hold two ambulances each, and a three- story building space for response activities, secure medicine and equipment storage, a decontamination room, training and meeting rooms, bunk rooms, an area where members on duty can read or watch TV while on standby, and a larger kitchen/dining area.

The projected cost of the project is in the range of $8 million to $9 million. 

RVAC hired two retired Peconic Bay Medical Center officials, former  President and CEO Andrew Mitchell and PBMC Foundation development officer Maureen Brady-Curzio. Mitchell also served as president of the PBMC Foundation, the fundraising arm of the hospital. The foundation raised millions of dollars during successful capital campaigns to help fund construction of major hospital expansions, including the Kanas Center for Advanced Surgery, a major expansion of the hospital’s emergency department, and more.

It was a phone call from Brady-Curzio that led to the $50,000 donation made by the Apple Honda general manager today, Fields said in an interview yesterday. Brady-Curzio said she was looking to solicit a total of $50,000 from the auto dealers along route 58 and asked Fields for help with contact information.

As it happens, Fields had just been notified that the National Automobile Dealers Association Foundation planned to sunset its Ambassadors Program this year. The program was established by the National Automobile Owners Association Foundation years back. NADA members were solicited to contribute $10,000 to be pooled together and generate income that would allow contributing members to make $2,000 to deserving charities of their choice in their communities.  

Fields’ stepfather, the late Irwin Garsten, founder of Garsten Motors, now Apple Honda, had already donated $20,000 to the NADA Foundation in his own name and wrote a $10,000 personal check to donate to the NADA Foundation in Fields’ name. Over the years, Garsten and Fields as ambassadors both gave NADA Foundation grants to the charities they’d designated — for Garsten, the Peconic Bay Medical Center Foundation and the Peconic Bay Medical Center School of Radiology; for Fields, the Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

RVAC is “a terrific organization” that does great, very important work in the local community, Field said. He’s been happy to support the ambulance corps, he said.

When the NADA Foundation decided to sunset its Ambassador Program this year it gave each ambassador the opportunity to have a lump sum grant of $16,000 paid to the charitable  organization they’d originally designated or to a different group of their choosing.

Fields said he told Brady-Curzio he’d get back to her and then called his mother, Flora Garsten to seek her input. They decided to combine the three $16,000 lump sum ambassador grant payouts for a total of $48,000 and then add a $2,000 donation from Apple Honda to make it an even $50,000 donation to RVAC.

Fields and Apple Honda controller Dawn Vogel presented a ceremonial check for $50,000 to the Town Board and RVAC board members this afternoon outside RVAC headquarters.

Supervisor Tim Hubbard praised Fields and Apple Honda for continuing in the philanthropic tradition of his stepfather, who was a very generous, community-minded businessman, Hubbard said.

“It’s companies like yours that make this town a special place,” the town supervisor told Fields. Hubbard thanked Fields for his generosity  and commitment to the well-being of the Riverhead community. “It’s deeply appreciated,” he said.

Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps President Garret Lake thanked fields, echoing Hubbard’s sentiments. 

Lake and fellow board members displayed renderings of the proposed new facility. Lake said revenues from the ambulance billing program, which files claims with patients’ insurance companies for EMS services provided by RVAC, will defray or wholly cover the debt service on a bond the ambulance district will issue to pay for the construction of the new facility — and the demolition of the existing one.

Mitchell and Brady-Curzio were on hand today to witness the ceremonial check-passing, joining in the applause of RVAC members, town council members and supporters. 

Mitchell said he and Brady-Curzio aim to raise as much money as possible from private donors to lessen the amount the district needs to borrow to cover construction costs, and ultimately reduce the district’s debt service on the borrowing. He said they were getting a good response from donors to their solicitation efforts.

Lake thanked the Town Board for its support of the project, especially Town Supervisor Tim Hubbard and Town Board liaison to the ambulance Corps Council Member Ken Rothwell. 

“This board has been very supportive and great to work with,” Lake said.

Save the date

RVAC plans a public “unveiling” of the plans for the new facility together with tours of the existing headquarters on Oct. 18 from 2 to 4 p.m. More information about that event will be forthcoming, Lake said.