Answering the call: A local look at EMS volunteerism

SALISBURY — Whether a hiking accident at the top of Mount Riga, or a cardiac event at Lime Rock Park, the all-volunteer Salisbury ambulance squad has responded to emergency calls across all 57 square miles of Salisbury Town for over 50 years. Today, the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service (SVAS) finds itself responding to a different kind of challenge: a dearth of new, younger volunteers ready to take their places on the team.

“Salisbury, as rural as we are, truly depends on the volunteer ambulance. People have come to rely on it in a way they may not even realize—they just know that when they call 911, the ambulance will show up,” said Barrie Prinz, who has been a board member of SVAS since 2019 and volunteered to join the ambulance squad last fall.

“They expect that somebody will respond and somebody does. And those somebodies are all volunteers.”

Beginning Monday, Sept 11, SVAS is hosting an EMR certification course at its headquarters on 17 Under Mountain Rd. in Salisbury. It’s free for those who intend to volunteer on completion, but the class is open to anyone, including non-residents, with an interest in becoming a first-level emergency responder (a nominal fee of $250 will be charged to non-volunteers). SVAS is also encouraging people to join as ambulance drivers (which requires less training), or just to reach out and talk about what volunteering for the squad might look like.

Volunteer Emergency Services

In 1971, emergency responders from Sharon Hospital were delayed in reaching a car accident in Falls Village. In response to the tragedy, a group of concerned citizens led by Rees Harris formed SVAS—they bought a car to refurbish as an ambulance, and the garage that still houses the squad on Under Mountain Road.

Until recently, it was the norm in rural Connecticut communities to have their own, all-volunteer emergency services—neighbors taking care of neighbors when called upon, rather than having tax dollars support a paid staff waiting for an emergency. SVAS estimated that a paid emergency medical staff would add at least $300,000 to the town budget, triggering a tax increase for residents.

Meanwhile, the need for personnel has increased. While just five years ago, SVAS responded to some 400 calls in a year; last year they had about 650 calls, and this year the squad is on track to hit 700.

“I think there are a lot of people who don’t realize that not one of their tax dollars goes to paying for their ambulance service,” said Prinz. “People sometimes don’t believe us that we’re not going to charge them for the ambulance ride and the care, but we don’t. We are totally free we can be that way because we are a nonprofit, and all volunteer.”

There’s value there of course, she said. But more than that, there’s an invaluable intimacy to medical care administered by neighbors—especially in emergent situations.

“When you call, you get get people who know you or they know of you. On one of my first calls, I was with a more senior EMT who knew where the key to the caller’s door was, knew her son’s names, knew something about her condition, knew where stuff was in her house, knew what obstacles we would face getting in and out of the house. When you get people who know you, who know the area, I think you get a better level of care.

“And we want to carry on that tradition, because that’s the kind of community we’re trying to live in and build here.”

Decreasing Volunteerism

New volunteers are getting harder to find, however. Small-town cultures of volunteerism have weakened nationally, and in the Northwest Corner, traditionally volunteer services have been forced to switch to at least part-paid staff models in recent years.

In North Canaan, emergency medical services are now a line item in the town budget, and the volunteer ambulance is filled out with paid staff, full time paramedics, and at times, some contractors.

Thanks to the gifts of local patrons, said Salisbury ambulance squad chief Jacquie Rice, SVAS is well-funded and well-equipped. But the squad is aging—members who still regularly take calls are celebrating 25, 30, even 45 years with the squad. The majority of squad members are in their 60s and 70s, and even with high-school and college students volunteering to drive the ambulances, squad members’ average age still hovers around 58

“We’re looking for volunteers who are—perhaps a little less than 58,” Rice laughed.

After 30, 40 years on the squad, said Bob Rinninsland—who, along with his wife Rhonda, has himself served on the squad for 17 years—some members who want to retire are still holding off, in part because “they don’t want to leave the organization in the lurch.”

“I’m 73 now and still a fairly active EMT,” he said. “And at the end of this year I’ll re-cert for another two years. And then”—he shivered—“I’ll be 76. The question is, what do you do then?”

Rice joined the squad in 1978, as soon as she turned 18; even when she was living and teaching in California, she said, she would volunteer when she returned for a month or two in the summer.

“Salisbury has always been a huge volunteer community,” said Rice. “Both of my parents were very active in the community. They taught us that we should give back by volunteering in town—in whatever town we lived in.” But times have changed, she said.

“Maybe people didn’t have as many commitments as they do now,” said Rice. Everything, she observed—work, school, even parenting—seems to take more time. Also, she said, “homes in Salisbury used to be much more affordable, which meant that more people lived here full time. Maybe that gave us a greater sense of community.”

There are many reasons for the national decrease in volunteerism. But in Salisbury, the cultural shift is exacerbated by demographics: in terms of resident age, Salisbury is one of the oldest towns in Connecticut (the average age in Salisbury was 57.1 years in 2021); housing prices prevent young people, particularly those young enough to not yet be time-burdened by young families, from moving to the town; the high occurrence of second homes means that many able-bodied residents do their volunteering elsewhere.

Meanwhile, as Salisbury’s population ages, the number of emergency calls received by SVAS—many of which are related to seniors’ falls—are only increasing.

The influx of new residents from other, less rural regions also means that there’s a lack of awareness around the community’s need for service. People who have moved to Salisbury from, say, New York City, where they are used to having paid services, might not understand the extent to which Salisbury—from the town government to emergency services to ecological conservation to affordable housing—runs on volunteerism.

“Here we have this old New England, you know, Connecticut Yankee volunteerism,” said Rinninsland. “So there’s a transition phase that we’re going through. People who are new to the area in the last 3 to 5 years—they have to realize that up here, you do a little bit more volunteering.”

“Many of the town volunteer services have, like they could benefit from the next generation taking the reins,” said Holly Leibrock, a real estate agent and the mother of two teens, who began volunteering with the squad as a driver in spring 2022. Among her peers, Leibrock said, “I’ve noticed that there’s a hesitancy to commit to something that they can’t fulfill—it’s a generation that wants to excel in whatever they do.”

Her experience on the squad, however, has tempered some of that instinct, she said. “The environment debunks that mentality. Everyone comes from a different background, and everyone brings something different to the table. If you’re committed to offering what you can, I think that’s what makes a difference.”

Volunteering for SVAS

As a board member, said Barrie Prinz, “I’d sit in on these meetings listening to the need of the community and the need of the squad, and finally I just thought, ‘Well, I’m a person. I could do this.’” She worried at first about having enough time to fit in another commitment.

“I have a full time job”—Prinz is a lawyer—“I have three children in high school this year, and I have aging parents. You know, we are all overly busy. But the truth is, if I really look at my schedule, I make time for the things that are important to me.

“If somebody had said to me, you need to do this 24 hours a day, once a week, I would have been like, No way, absolutely not. But do I have time to be on call from 6 to 12 p.m.? A couple nights a month? Yeah, I’ve got time to do that.”

SVAS has no minimum requirement for how much time a volunteer needs to give to be a squad member—the schedules are made to work within volunteers’ full lives.

Leibrock and her elder daughter, Mackenzie Casey, took the EMR course together in fall 2022; Leibrock qualified as an EMT this past spring.

“It was a whole family endeavor,” Leibrock said. “Hadley”—Leibrock’s younger daughter—“even learned a bit because she would quiz us as we were preparing for the tests.”

Leibrock has also been impressed by watching Casey, now 18, grow and explore her own interests through her work with the squad (she is studying conservation biology at Amherst, and pursuing her wilderness rescue certification with SVAS).

“Mackenzie sees herself as a member of the community, and not just a kid living here,” said Leibrock. “She is she really has taken on more of a a leadership role—and recognizes the importance of being part of the community.”

At first, said Prinz, she also hesitated to join “because I was afraid that all of a sudden, on like 60 hours training, like somebody’s life would be placed in my hands. But that is not the way the squad works. The squad works in teams.

“You are empowered to treat people up to the level of your training, and no more,” said Prinz. “You are part of a system, which includes EMTs who have a greater level of training; on certain calls, there will also be paramedics who have an even greater level of training.”

Longtime squad members, Prinz said, “brought me into the fold in a the warmest, most welcoming way, and are so willing to share their knowledge. I’m trying to approach it as, ‘I’m new and I’m here to learn.’

“And I love learning new things, I love the training,” said Prinz, “but I really enjoy the direct patient contact.” A couple of weeks ago, Prinz responded to a two car accident, after which one of the riders had to be transferred to the hospital. “I took her vitals, made sure we were addressing what she was feeling physically, there was an EMT back there with me who was doing a bunch of things.

“But what she really needed was for somebody to hold her hand and talk to her and tell her she was going to be okay. To be that person for somebody in your community—it has such a direct and profound impact. It’s a great way to serve.”

EMR course offered at SVAS in Salisbury will begin September 11; it runs from 6:00 to 9:30pm on Mondays and Wednesdays through the fall. To sign up or learn more reach out to Barrett Prinz at 646-263-0568 or prinzbarrett@gmail.com