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FAIR OAKS — 3 a.m. The phone rings. Wayne Arnold lifts the receiver to his ear and mutters a sleepy “‘‘hello.” In two minutes, Arnold is wide awake, dressed in white coveralls and running to the ambulance parked in his driveway. He’s a member of the Fair Oaks Volunteer Ambulance Corps and tonight he’s on call. The ambulance speeds along Town of Wallkill roads, siren wail ing breaking the silence of the sleeping countryside. “That’s the longest mile or so,” Arnold said later, speaking in a slow drawl. ‘You just don't know what situation you will run into.” On a recent evening, Arnold and others of the 67-member corps gathered in the Fair Oaks home of president Ben Lambach and his wife, Pat. (She's a dispatcher.) “Howard Mills (of Scotchtown) gave us a 1960 ambulance 11 months ago,”’ Lambach said. ‘We took it to Wallkill Correc tional Facility body shop and the inmates got it in shape.” “We did everything,” said Mrs. Dee Green of Bloomingburg, corps treasurer-bookkeeper. _ “At Christmas we raised $300 at a local shopping plaza. Another $500 during a country and western jamboree and $153 by going door to door. ” ‘It’s hard work getting donations, but every dollar counts. Since we began, we have operated in the black.” Phones with the same emergen cy number 733-1818, are in five homes of dispatchers. When a per son dials, “several voices answer said Mrs. Pearl Bader of Circleville, currently serving as a telephone dispatcher for the club. Once the message is received, a response ‘I've got it,”’ assures another dispatcher that more than one will be involved in the volunteer team action to get to the scene of an emergency. ‘Whoever reaches the am bulance first, drives it,” said Mrs. Bader. Women in the corps said they would prefer male volunteers behind the ambulance wheel. But emergencies don’t always wait for the time of day when men are home and available to drive. Therefore, women take the wheel on many occasions and ‘‘very capably,”’ Lambach said. Joan Warren is one of those. At tractive, feminine, she takes the wheel of the ambulance often dur ing the daytime hours. Like other corps members working with the ambulance, Joan has had 26 hours of first aid training, has spent 16 hours in the emergency room of Horton Memorial Hospital and has been taught external heart massage and ventilation. The Town of Wallkill, one of the fastest growing areas in the state, covers approximately 64 square miles. The ambulance corps is concerned over the rapid growth and hopes to enlist the support of more volunteers. To be associated with the am bulance crew, a person must be 25 years of age or over. The corps has four teenagers as members but are only permitted to ride the am bulance with two adults. ‘But a volunteer doesn’t have to ride the ambulance,” Arnold said. ‘Volunteers can be useful in many ways from planning our fund raising projects to searching for land.”” Right now their biggest project is their biggest headache— finding a house for the equipment. We could built it on half an acre,” Arnold said, ‘“‘and hopefully in the Circleville area. He explained land costs have risen over the past two years, making available property much more than the corps can afford. “We can pay for our we just don’t want it at a fee that will put our operation in the red,” he said. Currently the two ambulances sit in the Arnold driveway on Gillen Road in Fair Oaks. Most of the equipment is in the Arnold basement. Meetings take place in the Quickway Diner, on 17K in Bloomingburg. “Once we have the property,” he said, ‘we've got the building and labor donated.” “Of prime importance right now,” said Mrs. Pat Lambach, “‘is nd abot the family Joe Plummer, editor in this simulated emergency, oxygen is ad ministered by Wayne Amoklett, Walt Rogers, Don Lynch and Mrs. Joan Warren. The demonstration is completed. Mock-patient Ronda Jean Arnold, age is 7, is ready for the hospital, as soon as the straps are secure.
Newspaper Details
The Times Herald Record
Middletown, New York, US
Wed, May 02, 1973
Page 63
Full Page
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USA 20 Jul 2026
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