By LOIS KINDLE
A group of about a dozen “handy” volunteers work behind the scenes at the Sun City Center Emergency Squad to keep its vehicles and buildings in tip-top shape.
Led by Dick Schneider, asst. chief of maintenance and a 28-year squad volunteer, they actually do a whole lot more. He’s at the squad every morning overseeing general repairs and maintenance of the squad’s two buildings, its four ambulances, two vans and two cars.
“He lives here,” said volunteer van driver, emergency medical responder and dispatcher Cricket Fraser, only half-joking.
Lois Kindle Photos
SCC EMS maintenance team members wash the squad’s ambulances and vans every Sunday at the crack of dawn. From left are Dave Regan, 76; Dick Schneider, 77, asst. chief of maintenance; and Barry Bogart, 77. Not seen in the photo is Ralph Renner.
Ken Schrom, 88, replaces the arm of a wheelchair donated to the squad. He and fellow volunteer Mike Vilasi work every Monday to make sure equipment like this is functional before it’s loaned out to community residents.
“He’s incredible, all the things he does. We all rely on him.”
Schneider just smiles.
“I’m 87-years-old,” he said. “This is what keeps me young.”
In addition to keeping its ambulances and vans street-ready at all times, the maintenance team “does a little bit of everything,” said Schneider’s right-hand man Barry Bogart, who also volunteers as a van driver on team 4.
He supervises the garage at the squad’s training center at 124 S. Pebble Beach Blvd., where specific team members have assorted duties on assigned days. Dale Johnson, for example, power washes donated wheelchairs, transport chairs and rollators with ZEP detergent and water every Saturday. He tags each as clean and ropes them off for other guys to inspect and repair, as needed, on Sunday or Monday.
Barry Bogart, 77, checks some adjusted brakes on a donated transit chair to ensure they work properly at the squad’s training center garage, where he supervises the daily operation.
Dick Schneider, 87, asst. chief of maintenance for the Sun City Center Emergency Squad, oversees general repairs and maintenance of the squad’s two buildings, its four ambulances, two vans, two cars and a team of about a dozen volunteers.
Typical of others on the team, Johnson shows up week in, week out to do his part.
“It keeps me going,” said the 82-year-old volunteer. “I’m doing something important to help the community.”
Bogart agrees. “I enjoy everything we do,” he said. “The squad is my hobby. I’ve been involved ever since I learned about it at Fun Fest in 2012.”
On Tuesday, the parts of each piece of equipment – slide guides, brakes, levers, bearings, etc. – are lubricated (again as needed), given a final sanitizing and moved to the onsite storage shed.
During the week van crews bring over returned and dirty chairs, transports and walkers, and the process begins again.
If anything is found to be unrepairable, it’s put aside to be scrapped and then taken apart for recycling. Any usable parts are stored for reuse.
“We don’t want to loan anything to our community we or a family member wouldn’t want to use,” Bogart said.
The SCC Emergency Squad loans out roughly 1,100 items per year, including the items previously mentioned, crutches and canes.
But that’s not all.
Ambulances and vans are sanitized and pressure washed weekly, as well.
Volunteer Dale Johnson, 82, comes in every Saturday to power wash donated wheelchairs, transport chairs and rollators with ZEP detergent and water. He says the job “keeps him going.”
“The maintenance crew are our unsung heroes,” said Chief Mike Bardell. “They keep our lights on and our wheels turning. Without their dedication, we would frequently be in a bind. They make sure our ambulances are running and our facilities don’t have problems. They’re our go-to guys for getting stuff fixed and often take care of the details no one else thinks about, like replacing toilet paper or light bulbs, fixing a running toilet or putting out the garbage.
“I hate to think how quickly we’d encounter problems without them,” he said.
If you’re a person who’s handy and likes to keep busy, the maintenance team is always looking for help. Contact Chris McCann, asst. chief of HR, at 813-633-1411, ext. 429 or email her at HR@scc-ems.us/.