By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- With 70 members, four ambulances, a heavy rescue truck, an advanced life support vehicle and a satellite location in Norwood, the Potsdam Volunteer Rescue Squad is a far cry from when it began 60 years ago.

The first vehicle in October 1955 was a donated hearse and the equipment included a resuscitator bought by the Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club but which no one was trained to use.

Today, the squad is independent of the Potsdam Fire Department and has survived and grown on grants, donations, and the dedication of its volunteers since then.

Charlie Merriman is squad president and Tim Rivers is the squad’s chief.

“We’re lucky to have someone like Charlie keeping administration going,” said Chief Rivers.

Merriman tracks expenses and income and everything else the squad is responsible for, Rivers said.

Some of the recent statistics reported include the average of 1,500 to 1,700 calls each year over the last several years.

“As of Sept. 30, this year, we’ve had 1,752 calls, though, which is a little higher than average,” Rivers said.

Also in that time period, the squad’s vehicles have traveled 22,266 miles, “90 percent in town,” said Rivers.

Back in the fall of 1955, the 23 initial members had been training hard since summer when they answered their first official call on Oct. 5 for a man having a heart attack. He was administered oxygen along the way and recovered at Potsdam Hospital.

The squad now has 23 basic EMTs among its members, and four Advanced EMT-Paramedics and eight Critical Care Advanced EMTs on its rolls.

Rivers attributes some of the squad’s health to the physician assistant graduate program at Clarkson University.

Over the last decade or more, volunteer rescue squads and fire departments have had a hard time recruiting new members and keeping current members active. The reasons cited for the problem include the increasing demands on volunteers for training and certifications, and the time demands those courses and the emergency calls at all hours have on families, especially young ones.

The requirements for Basic Emergency Medical Technician certification have been growing all along, “and have even increased again lately,” Rivers said, not to mention the more rigorous qualifications required for Advanced Emergency Medical Technicians and other higher-level certifications.

“But the Clarkson PA program is making things better for us,” Rivers said, as EMTs volunteer with the Potsdam squad to gain experience before they apply for the Clarkson program, and as PA students work with the squad to meet some of the requirements for their degrees.

And at SUNY Potsdam, a group of student volunteers, some well trained members of Potsdam Rescue, have been answering emergency calls at the college, “sometimes responding first,” Rivers said.

Those things have helped Potsdam Rescue dodge some of the problems of declining membership that other squads have been facing, Rivers said. And the relationships have provided some worthwhile results.

“Our members have become doctors, physical therapists, engineers, veterinarians, homeland security agents, and even a politician” a recent flyer from the squad said.

Fundraising remains a challenge as it has been since the start. Everything gets more expensive, and the specifications of the equipment they use are constantly upgraded, raising the cost even more.

Right now the squad is raising money for new power stretchers, at about $14,000 each, that will make transport to and from emergency vehicles much easier. They also need new cardiac monitors with many more functions and better ease of use than older models.

And ambulances don’t last forever, especially if you buy used ones, which the squad has done from time to time. It won’t be long before they need to spend the $120,000 to $150,000 for a new one.

Service organizations – the Elks, Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis and other clubs – and local businesses have always been supportive, Rivers said, and the community has always responded to things such as the recent scrap metal drive, but it remains a struggle “to keep our head above water and keep the equipment maintained. Grants are out there to get, but they are getting herder to get, considering the needs of fire departments and municipalities,” Rivers said.

“We’re EMS. We’re a separate entity. There are grants for fire districts, and they deserve everything they get. So we rely more on community organizations for fundraising.”

Donations, tax deductible of course, are always welcome. They can be mailed to The Potsdam Volunteer Rescue Squad, PO Box 700, Potsdam, NY 13676.