This May marks the 50th anniversary of the Indian River County Volunteer Ambulance Squad, celebrating a half-century of providing free medical transportation to county residents. Last year alone volunteers made more than 14,000 trips for 7,400-plus clients, prompting them to be chosen recently from among 750 applicants to receive a prestigious National Volunteer Transportation Center Award. As far as anyone knows, it’s the only organization of its kind in the state.
The story of one of the oldest, most respected nonprofit organizations in the county begins in 1966. Medicare had just begun, New York City public transportation workers were on strike, U.S. troops in Vietnam reached 190,000 and “Sweet Charity” opened on Broadway. Here in Indian River County, the local funeral homes, which for years had used their hearses for emergency medical transportation, decided to get out of the “ambulance” business.
A determined group of volunteers stepped in, launching with one vehicle what came to be known as the Indian River County Volunteer Ambulance Squad. During its heyday in the 1970s, the squad had more than 400 active volunteers, including 150 licensed EMTs, and a budget healthy enough to provide the community with the best-equipped ambulances available.
They became the primary first responder in the county, covering medical emergencies, automobile accidents and at least one aircraft accident. But by mid-1979 volunteer numbers had dwindled to less than 150, stemming from increased state requirements and a greater demand from the growing population.
The IRCVAS officially shut down July 14, 1979, with the county taking over virtually all emergency ambulance services other than in Indian River Shores and Fellsmere, which had their own. The squad turned over its emergency equipment to the county, with then-squad President Lloyd Clark observing, “We have just outlived our usefulness as a provider of emergency services.”
But the remaining volunteers, not ready to stop serving their community, opted to breathe new life into the squad and provide non-emergency transportation to people in need of medical treatment.
Today the squad operates from its headquarters at the northeast end of the Barber Bridge, utilizing three wheelchair vans, six Toyota Scions and roughly 70 volunteers, including eight women, plus two paid staff. The trips are still free and the nonprofit receives absolutely no funding from local, state or federal agencies, existing solely on private donations. Active fundraising occurs only once a year via a mailing.
The squad’s diverse board includes: President Carl Goembel, an author and retired career Air Force fighter pilot who served in Europe and Southeast Asia; Vice President Clark Ballard, chair of the 50th anniversary celebration, who comes from 45 years in non-theatrical film production, including post-grad work at USC with George Lucas; Art Eberhart, chief of training, is a former FBI agent who later worked as security chief for Coca-Cola; Jim Manor, head of maintenance, was sales manager for a chain of New York auto parts stores; and John Ross, who comes from a career in optics, creating lenses for printing and photography in New York City and Pittsburgh.
“We’re all here because we want to be,” said Ballard. “We enjoy giving back to the community. Some wouldn’t be able to get to the doctor if not for us. Some repeat clients we get to know well; some for years. Some, like three-times-a-week dialysis patients, for life.”
“We give clients and their families’ peace of mind,” said Goembel, adding that their clients can remain in their homes longer and that family members don’t have to take off work to get their loved ones to medical care.
Longtime volunteer Frank Vercouteren, aka Frank the Baker, brought the squad homemade cakes every Wednesday. Despite retiring as a driver, he still comes by weekly with his wife to help clean the vehicles – cakes in hand.
Bob MacDonald and Walter Burns, the “Honorary Chief,” joined during the emergency response days, and it is said that Burns even helped deliver a baby. Driver John Lipski was so dedicated to the mission that he and wife, Tina, donated a vehicle two years ago, shortly before he passed away.
Squad Administrator April Hargett, considered “the face of IRCVAS,” spent 17 years teaching English in Japan before joining as a driver in 1993 and becoming administrator in ’97. Today Hargett can be found on the phone and the two-way radio, taking reservations, scheduling, dispatching and keeping records. She is praised equally by volunteers and clients for the unruffled way she handles the hectic job, serving clients with warmth, courtesy and respect.
She and squad volunteers all understand the importance of their services to individuals who are often elderly and alone, wheelchair-bound, no longer driving or otherwise unable to get to medical appointments.
“The doctors like us, too. It’s easier for them to schedule appointments,” said Hargett, who schedules drivers between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. And, although calls for service remain relatively constant throughout the year, volunteer numbers drop significantly as snowbirds head north.
The clients are also diverse, including one man who had been the personal pilot for radio and TV legend Arthur Godfrey, and another who had fought for the Polish Resistance in WWII.
“Last February I got a letter from the VAS and I felt like it was a letter from God,” said caregiver Patti Keane, who uses the service to transport her elderly patient. “I was flabbergasted. There’s nothing like it. April is wonderful. (My patient) can go in the van with her wheelchair. They call her by name and she has no more anxiety. They couldn’t be more kind and caring.”
“I lived in Jacksonville for many years. They don’t have something like this,” said another client, Helen, to Eberhart when he came to pick her up. “They don’t have YOU! I give you a thumb’s up, and April is a doll! You can be sure everybody loves the VAS. We (older people) need all the help we can get, and this is one of the best!”
The IRCVAS can be reached at 772-231-1230.
