By Bill Carey
EMS1
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Pa. — Three Pennsylvania ambulance companies in Jefferson County gathered to celebrate their 50th anniversaries, looking at the past and the future.
Brockway, Reynoldsville and Sykesville gathered at the Brockway Area Ambulance Station on June 25 for group photos and a meal, WTAJ reported. All were founded in 1973 after a law removed the responsibility of transporting and treating patients from the coroner’s office.
Brockway President Don Moore told Courier Express that members in each service took EMT classes together, did their continuing education together, learned how to work together and became longtime friends.
Each company says that recruiting volunteers is difficult and has been a growing problem across the state for years.
“It’s been a downward progression of lack of help,” Brockway Area Ambulance EMT Gregory Castiglione said. “We’re trying to get people in their communities because as much as we have people come from out of town to help cover shifts, at night when there is nobody here, that’s when it is tough.”