SOUTH BRUNSWICK: Finding a family among first aid volunteers

by Davy James, Staff Writer
   For Kendall Park First Aid and Rescue Squad Capt. Ray Weiss, volunteering to help the community is a family affair.
   After seeing both of his sons work for the squad for a number of years, Mr. Weiss decided to get involved 13 years ago and as time has passed the other members of the squad became like a surrogate family.
   ”My favorite part of volunteering are the people here,” Mr. Weiss said. “I’m retired and I’m a widower so this is my family here. I look at the other members as my kids. Of course, they’re not my real kids but I’ve known many of them since they were kids.”
   The sacrifices Mr. Weiss and the other squad members throughout South Brunswick make are many, as the rigors of the job can begin to mount up.
   ”You face a lot of nights with no sleep, where you keep going out on calls and get back home and sleep for an hour before you have to get up and go into work,” he said. “Days like that take a toll on you. There’s a lot of overnight stuff because we cover this town 24/7. There’s nothing like a call at three in the morning.”
   With 42 volunteers the Kendall Park squad is doing well with membership levels, Mr. Weiss said, but like many of the other squads in town it could always use more. He said that many of the calls the volunteers answer can be both unpredictable and rewarding, especially when an expectant mother waits too long to go to the hospital.
   ”It’s a lot easier to deliver on the scene than it is to deliver in the ambulance,” Mr. Weiss said. “I hate to deliver a baby at home. It should be in the hospital because there are too many things that can go wrong that we’re not equipped to handle. But it can be rewarding. We delivered a baby at a home once and the father arrived at the house after the baby was born and he asked me what he had. I told him, ‘You have a daughter and you’re going to need a new couch.’”
   One of the more memorable calls in Mr. Weiss’ time with the squad was during the terror attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11, which Mr. Weiss said called for a lot of waiting around.
   ”We got the call at 11 a.m. to respond with whatever ambulances we had,” he said. “We went to the Meadowlands where they were supposed to be bringing a lot of the injured people. We were there until 10 at night and no people were brought because the thousands of injuries they were expecting were all dead.”
   The squad went to Ground Zero the following day to perform emergency medical work on the rescue workers and Mr. Weiss said the carnage at the scene was immense.
   ”It looked like Berlin after World War II,” he said. “When we came back everybody was gray from all of the dust.”
   Mr. Weiss said he has no thoughts of retiring from the squad anytime soon.
   ”It’s an open-ended thing and I have no idea how long I’ll keep doing it,” he said. “I don’t get nervous heading out on calls. What makes me nervous is figuring out how to keep the building going.”
   The squad is hoping for a contractor to come in and fix the ceiling, which is in desperate need of repair. It’s also asking that anyone in the community with a junk car donate it to the squad for training exercises. Mr. Weiss said a letter for tax deductions will be supplied. The squad also is seeking volunteers, who can be as young as 14 years old.
   Mr. Weiss said the benefit of working with the squad is the feeling each volunteer gets from serving the community.
   ”It’s just satisfying being able to help people,” he said. “It certainly hasn’t been about the money.”
   For more information on donating or volunteering visit www.kpfars.org.