It’s 7:33 p.m. on a Thursday night and you’re singing happy birthday to your son; a family celebration with birthday cake and ice cream. Your pager goes off and you hear the dispatcher say that a child is having difficulty breathing. You quickly leave your family and head to the base where you meet a crew and together you head to the address provided where you find panicked parents holding a very ill child. 

   This is the life of every ambulance medic working for Genesee Valley Emergency Medical Services, Inc. in Caledonia and services throughout Livingston County.  They are doing what they’ve been trained to do, but it’s not what they are paid to do. GVEMS medics are volunteers. They do what they do because they love it.

   "It’s a sacrifice but very gratifying to be able to help someone and truly make a difference," commented Andy Klein, GVEMS paramedic. 

   GVEMS operates two Caledonia Ambulances and one advanced life support fly car with 14 volunteer medics whose training ranges from basic EMTs (emergency medical technician) to paramedics, the highest level of critical care. The relatively small staff responds to all emergency calls occurring after 6 p.m. on weekdays and all of the weekend hours from Friday evening to Monday morning. GVEMS contracts with a paid medical service on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.   

   Volunteer medics must complete hundreds of hours of training to prepare for their lifesaving work. It is perhaps the highest form of community service that often has others asking, "Why do you do it?"  For Klein and the others, there is no price tag that can be placed on their motivation for doing this job.

   "If not for me and others like me, someone in need could die. I can’t describe how it feels to be able to save a life," explained Klein. "It may be inconvenient for us to be called out in the middle of the night, but it is so great to be able to help someone."  
GVEMS volunteers often know their patients, bringing a whole different dimension to the role of the emergency responder. Laura Wolcott is a GVEMS volunteer paramedic.

   "Oh yes, sometimes when I arrive the patient will call me by name. Sometimes that is very difficult but your training takes over and you just do what you’ve been trained to do. That doesn’t mean that afterward you don’t walk away and lose it.  But we have a great support system – each other," Wolcott explained.

   Wolcott and her husband Bucky are GVEMS volunteers. She jokes that their quality time together is when they are both on a Caledonia Ambulance transport or going through training together.

   Wolcott says she was talked into joining the organization nine years ago, committing to be an ambulance driver only. 

   "I told them I can’t do blood and guts. Then one night at 3 a.m., I found myself out with Andy Klein on a call. A motor vehicle had flipped over. "I said to myself, ‘I can’t believe I’m out here at 3 a.m. and this car is upside down. This is pretty cool.’" 

   She completed the basic EMT training course and went on to earn advanced paramedic certification. As one of four GVEMS paramedics, Wolcott operates the ALS (advanced life support) fly car. She also serves on the board of directors as ALS chief. In addition to volunteering locally, she is a paid paramedic with Rural Metro in the city of Rochester.  
"I work as a paid paramedic in Rochester because I love the work I do and I really care about my patients. I volunteer as a paramedic for GVEMS because my heart is here in my hometown," Wolcott remarked.

   Not all of the volunteer medics live in the Cal-Mum community. Gary Perkins is one of a handful of GVEMS medics who gives works here but lives in Monroe County.  Perkins said he originally joined the ambulance service in Greece, NY where he and his wife reside. 
"I told them I only wanted to be a dispatcher, not a medic." That didn’t last too long before Perkins completed his basic emergency medical technician requirements and began working on patients. Since joining GVEMS, Perkins has elevated his training to intermediate EMT, which required an additional 120 hours in the classroom. 

   Their service is not without sacrifice. They are typically called away from their own families at inconvenient times.

   "If you had asked us years ago, I don’t think any of us would have said we’d be doing this kind of work someday. Our kids had to learn real quickly that they are not the center of the universe, that there are others who require our help," Klein said.

   GVEMS, Inc., formerly Caledonia Ambulance, formed seven years ago in response to the shortage of volunteers available and the decline in donations. The ambulance service had been part of the Caledonia volunteer fire department for nearly 70 years. Klein says a committee worked together to develop a way to provide adequate emergency medical services to the community and to keep the medical service financially stable. GVEMS was formed allowing them to bill the patients’ Medicare, Medicaid and other private insurance carriers for ambulance transportation. To answer the problem of insufficient volunteer coverage during the critical daytime hours, the corporation contracts with a paid medical transport service from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Volunteers provide back up coverage during those hours in the event that more than one emergency occurs during the daytime. Volunteers are on call during all of the evening and overnight hours on weekdays and all weekend. 

   "To answer all of the calls that we receive in our area, it takes both the paid staff and the dedicated service of our volunteers. For all that we’ve succeeded in doing, it wouldn’t work without both," Klein commented.

   For eight decades, the community has supported Caledonia Ambulance in many ways, but primarily through monetary donations and memorials. Though billing for its services makes it possible for the emergency medical service to answer more than 700 calls annually in Caledonia, the Mumford fire district and the surrounding area, the donations are still a very important part of their $225,000 annual operating budget and Klein says they are very grateful to the community for their continued support. GVEMS does not directly receive funding through any property taxes such as town, village, county or fire.

   Until January of this year, GVEMS continued to store its vehicles at the Caledonia fire hall, its supplies at J.W. Jones Hall on Leicester Street and conducted business out of its offices on the second floor of the town hall. That all changed when they officially took ownership of the former Meyer’s RV office building on Avon-Caledonia Road in Caledonia. The two-story, 10,000 square foot building has plenty of roomy bays for storing the two ambulance vehicles and the ALS car, and includes plenty of space for training, an office, a workshop and much more.   

   A bright red and white sign with the GVEMS logo hangs on the front of the building. The members are very pleased with the new space and they are anxious to conduct additional training classes in the future. As if transporting patients to the hospital isn’t enough, the building is buzzing with volunteers who spend entire days working on some minor renovations needed to make the space more customized to their needs. On a recent Saturday, several volunteers were building wood shelving when a man walked in and reported that an elderly resident had fallen and needed to be taken to the hospital. Four volunteers put down their saws and drills, dusted off their clothing and jumped into the Caledonia ambulance rig. The bay doors begin to rise and away they go to help someone in the community get the emergency care they need.

Darci Mitchell and Justin Mitchell begin their training to become
volunteer medics with GVEMS.

GVEMS medics practice carrying a patient (Andy Klein)
down stairs using a new device that they will purchase at a price tag of $500.