Town Councilman John Gavaris, the Chief Operating Officer for the squad, mentioned at the last town board meeting that the squad was in desperate need of volunteers to help fill out their membership to continue to provide service to the community.

"We've always had a problem with volunteers and finding people who can commit," says Gavaris of the squad's needs. "We have to be very careful, because we need dependable people." The biggest problem they've found, he says, is that people volunteer without fully realizing the kind of commitment necessary to help the squad.

The squad responds to calls dispatched from the area's emergency services, and covers about eleven-hundred square miles, encompassing the Cragsmoor, Ellenville, and Napanoch fire districts, "almost the entire township," says Gavaris.

Currently, there are approximately 20 active members. Ideally, the members would be on-call one night a week, but because of the low numbers of available volunteers, many of the members have had to take on more than one on-call day a week. Gavaris also says that if the squad is unable to find more volunteers soon, it may be forced to pay the squad-members for their time, which would raise the organization's expenses, and in-turn, would raise the town's taxes to cover the costs.

The benefits to joining are numerous, says Gavaris.

"There's free training, and you can now be eligible for tax credits," he says, referring to income tax breaks volunteers can obtain for joining up. Furthermore, the opportunities for that kind of training open up all kinds of employment possibilities, such as working as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) at private functions or organizations. "And of course, there's the personal satisfaction," he adds.

"I live here, and it's my way of giving back to the community," he continues, saying that the familiarity-factor is a benefit the Ellenville squad has over other similar services. "I get to be a familiar face to the people we help. They know me, and they're comfortable with me, and they hope that I'll take care of them."

Interested parties can call the Ellenville First Aid and Rescue Squad's building at 647-8181.

COMMENTS about this article (49)