‘You’re able to say you’ve been able to help somebody’
By Will Jones
Richmond Times Dispatch (Virginia)
Copyright 2006 Richmond Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
In early 1957, a group of Powhatan County residents sprang into action for a man showing signs of heart trouble.
He was taken to a hospital in Farmville, but it’s unclear what happened to him. There’s no mystery, however, about his helpers.
The Powhatan Volunteer Rescue Squad recently marked its 50th anniversary.
The squad was organized Nov. 13, 1956, and its first group of 15 volunteers started running calls in early 1957, said Bill Boelt, a member whose late father, Raymond Boelt, was the first president.
The squad now has about 50 members and welcomes more. They save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars per year by giving up nights and weekends to answer calls for help.
Powhatan spends about $220,000 annually to staff daytime shifts during the week, when many volunteers are at work.
Bill Jervey, a 79-year-old farmer, joined the squad in 1960 and has been a member since. He said he stayed involved because of the support of his late wife, Millie, and because of the camaraderie among members.
“Most of it is gratifying,” he said of the work, “when you’re able to say you’ve been able to help somebody.”
The squad’s origin can be traced to the late Tony Smith, a prominent farmer and business owner, according to Bill Boelt.
In 1956, Smith approached E. Floyd Yates in hopes of raising enough money to give Powhatan’s 5,500-plus residents faster access to hospitals in Richmond.
By December, $2,500 had been raised for stretchers and a respirator, 15 men had been trained in first aid and a 1957 nine-passenger station wagon, equipped as an ambulance, had been donated, according to an article in The Richmond News Leader.
Early on, volunteers often learned by word of mouth that someone needed help, Jervey said. He said folks called the squad if someone was injured and a doctor if someone was sick.
“Now, doctors call the rescue squad,” he said.
The squad has remained a cohesive group, despite the changing faces and increasing training requirements, Jervey said.
“When I got in, nobody ever heard of an EMT,” he said, referring to an emergency medical technician. “It was basic first-aid and advanced first-aid. As I recall, there was not a whole lot of difference in them.”
Over the years, Jervey has collected a few souvenirs, but mostly tales of memorable calls.
He recalled one involving a former member whose belly was so large he couldn’t find a belt to hold up his pants. One day, the man was carrying a patient on a stretcher when he realized his pants button was about to pop.
“He screamed to the world at large, ‘Somebody get my pants!’”
Another squad member quickly came to the rescue.
“He didn’t drop the patient, and she held up his pants,” Jervey said. “All’s well that ends well.”