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From The Observer News
(www.observernews.net) Top Stories By Penny Fletcher
You’d think 430 volunteers would be enough for one community, but Chief Christine Patrick says there are never enough warm bodies. People leave for vacation- some for months at a time, especially in the summer- get sick, become caregivers, or must take off from duty for a host of other reasons. Meanwhile, residents of Sun City Center and Kings Point continue to need the services the squad provides. “Besides our ambulance transports,” Patrick said. “People forget we loan wheelchairs, walkers and all sorts of medical supplies. And we don’t just help members of our community. The county calls us to assist them as well.” But the squad can no longer answer all the calls to assist the county because its ambulances stay so busy within the community. Squad members answer about 6,800 calls a year thanks to those who volunteer as emergency medical technicians, ambulance drivers, dispatchers, Team Captains, office workers, cooks, and helpers of all kinds. Teams go on call for a 24-hour shift every eight days but Patrick says that doesn’t mean every team member is working 24 straight hours. It means the team splits up the hours so that all shifts are covered. All addresses in Sun City Center are routed through electronic equipment just like Hillsborough County’s 9-1-1 system, so if someone picks up the phone to call for help and then passes out, the name and address still show up on the screen in the squad house. With three assistant chiefs and her deputy chief, Richard Morrison, Patrick says she has served the longest term allowed by squad bylaws, two years, so there will be an election in December for a new chief to take over in January. Spending a couple of hours in the squad house you can easily see how one minute people will be sitting around talking, reading, or watching television and then all of a sudden, a call comes in and every hand is on deck. Movement is everywhere. Everyone acts with precision, like a well-oiled machine; starting the ambulance, making calls, grabbing equipment bags, until seconds later, sirens blasting, the team pulls out. This, however, is not like any other emergency squad around. Its services are free to residents of Sun City Center and Kings Point; saving them an average of $500 a trip to the nearest hospital, plus any other services it provides enroute. It operates on donations, which have gone down as many Sun City Center “old-timers” become too elderly or feeble to volunteer and new people are busy with other things (often still working full time jobs). The economic downturn has hurt financial donations as well. This means that lately the squad has only been able to man two of its four ambulances during the day and one at night. Volunteers of all types are desperately needed. Speaking of volunteers, I wanted to know how a group of volunteers, mostly retired, became the highly-trained organization the squad is today. For the answer to this, I turned to John Bowker, the squad’s historian.
Bowker, who mans the community’s Information Center most days of the week and has collected information about its people, clubs and organizations, put together a slide show about five years ago for the squad’s alumni, and offered me a wealth of information for this story, including the historical photographs accompanying it. According to the written archives, the squad was established Sept. 23, 1964 with Raymond J. Watson as its founder and first chief. (Now you know why the street in front of the squad house leading to Rickenbacker Drive is called Ray Watson Drive.) Phil Lewers of (what was then) Lewers & Shannon Funeral Home on College Avenue in Ruskin demonstrated the use of an oxygen inhaler at the squad’s organizational meeting; loaned it to them, and then decided to just give it to them. The same with the hearse he “loaned” them for an ambulance.
Then long-time postmaster Mary Shelton donated a second hearse; bought from Lewers. At first, records show there were three teams, led by Reginald Smith, William McLaughlin and Watson himself. “Watson established memberships of $25 per household and an annual fee of $5, and those who paid received services without charge anytime they needed them,” Bowker explained. “Those who opted not to pay would be charged a mileage fee.” At that time, there was no hospital in Sun City Center, and all were transported to Blake Hospital in west Bradenton or Tampa General Hospital. South Bay Hospital was originally built by the owners of L.W. Blake in 1982 and has gone through a series of changes in ownership and name, and four major renovations and additions, since that time.
Records show the squad was incorporated July 13, 1966 and Sun City Center’s developer, Del E. Webb, leased the first building to the squad in 1967 for $1 a year. The Del Webb Corporation later gave both the building and the land to the community. In 1968, a major addition was made to accommodate a second ambulance. By then, Hubbell’s Nursery had moved to Ruskin (it’s still there, on State Road 674) and the original Sun City Center Plaza was being built where Hubbell’s had been before. (Now Save-A-Lot.)
In 1973, the squad began raising money to buy a third ambulance and in 1977 built a third bay to house it. In 1977 the squad also switched from using CB radios to its new system when Chief Mason Logan installed a private radio system paid for by the “Pillowcase on the Lamp Post” campaign. Residents who donated were given a special “squad” pillowcase to display outside on their front lamp post. This embarrassed their neighbors into donating until everyone on the street had a pillowcase on their lamp post. A similar campaign was launched in 1979 when $125,000 was needed to build a new building, only this time it was tying ribbons on houses outside lights. Records show $67,000 came in over the summer and the $125,000 was made almost immediately after the snowbirds returned that fall. By 1980, the new building was dedicated. Ingenuity won again and again as the squad faced its trials. In early 1981, the State came up with the rule that there had to be two highly-trained personnel on each ambulance. Community activist Fred Russell organized a protest. “We can’t operate that way, we won’t have enough personnel and that will cost the county money,” Russell, now deceased, is quoted in a newspaper article from 1981. “Are you crazy? Do you want to pay for what we are doing for you for free?” The protestors won, and the county exempted the squad from the rule. Then, in 1987, when the developer’s contract for the Apollo Beach Rescue Squad to cover Kings Point was up, the Sun City Center squad took over duties within Kings Point under Chief Gregg Geiger. Many Kings Pointers immediately became volunteers and donors. But still, with more residents to cover, the needs also grew. Besides serving the community, Hillsborough County was now calling upon the squad to assist on many of its calls. A form of reward came in August 1992, when the Sun City Center Emergency Squad became Point No. 842 of President George Bush’s “Points of Light” volunteer recognition program. By that time, the squad was responding to about 6,000 emergencies a year. “I did an analysis about four years ago,” Bowker told me. “And at that time, they had a call about every four minutes.” Patrick says they are even busier now. People who wish to volunteer may call the non-emergency number (813) 633-1411. No medical background is needed. “We have a job for everyone,” Patrick said. Financial donations are also needed (right now) to keep the squad afloat. © Copyright 2008 by The Observer News Publications and M&M Printing |
