At 40 years old, the Plainsboro Rescue Squad (PRS) looks better than it did at 30. With nearly 100 members, the all-volunteer nonprofit organization celebrated its 40th year of service at the annual installation dinner in January. The squad responded to 755 emergency calls in 2014, caring for 811 patients and volunteering a total of 22,158 hours.
Brian Gould will continue as squad chief. Last month he also received the individual award at the township’s inaugural Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Make a Difference” Volunteer Award ceremony.
Dimitry Pokrasov and Lucy Zhu will serve as the new deputy chief and assistant chief. Emily Wolf, one of the top responders in 2014, was given the New EMT of the Year award at PRS’ inauguration dinner, and she is the incoming president of the executive board, the squad’s administrative body. A trustees board oversees expenditures and investment, and Michael Snook is the only new trustee in 2015, replacing Vikram Kumar.
PRS provides ambulance service on nights and weekends without billing for service. Through a separate organization, Plainsboro Township EMS, the township provides two paid EMTs Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The township EMS bills $500 per call.
Started in 1974, PRS is operated and managed by its volunteer members. The squad acquires and maintains the ambulances and equipment, which the paid Plainsboro Township EMS uses during the day.
Gould was recruited in 2002 by his daughter, a cadet volunteer attending High School South. Gould says the squad was in terrible shape then, with only 12 ambulance-riding members.
Taking over recruiting duties, Gould brought on more than 50 new members in his first year. His unrelenting recruiting — he has been known to approach patients and their family members — has achieved notoriety among squad members. The squad currently has 90 members, with more then 50 active members qualified to ride ambulances in response to calls.
“We have more members than we can actually use,” Gould says. “We talk to squads all over the place, and all we hear is volunteerism is dying. We actually turn away volunteers.”
Add Gould: “Because we’ve gotten picky, we have people who like to be together. And it’s created an environment that people want to join. People have heard good things about the squad.”
Even with a large group of dedicated members, fundraising remains a challenge for PRS. With a yearly operating budget of $160,000, raising money is a massive undertaking for an organization that relies on outside donations. Plainsboro township makes an annual contribution of $60,000.
Though PRS is able to cover its expenses, the operating budget does not include major purchases. The squad’s parking lot on Plainsboro Road is in dire need of repaving, but Gould says he has no idea where PRS will get the $50,000 needed. Power stretchers that lift mechanically would provide back relief to members, but those cost $17,000 apiece.
“We have a group that generously serves, but it’s the worst group to ask for things,” Gould says. “We’re holding our own. We don’t bill our services, and we probably won’t need to the way things are going.”
The organization relies on donations and the few grants that come its way. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation recently gave a grant for a new ambulance, which will replace an older one that cost $20,000 a year in maintenance fees. PRS also recently received a grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb to purchase new coats, which Gould says have not been replaced in 12 years.
The squad sends out mailers to residents and participates in township events, though Gould expressed frustration at public misconceptions that hinder fundraising efforts.
“The problem we run into is the complete lack of understanding from the public on how we are funded,” Gould says. “We explain in the mailer that we are self-sustaining, and I got a response that said `how dare you ask for money after you raise our taxes.’ A friend sent a donation after we rescued his mother-in-law, but the donation was to the township fire company, which is unrelated to us.”
The squad pays for its own supplies, vehicle and building maintenance, utilities, and a variety of insurances, the squad’s biggest collective expense. In addition, the squad owns and maintains its three ambulances and a single SUV.
Gould did not anticipate such heavy involvement when his daughter, Leah, convinced him to sign up. Due to an eye condition Gould had to discontinue his hobby of flying, and volunteering as an EMT became his addiction. Leah was also a pilot, flying for the Navy, and she will be working in New York as a federal prosecutor. Younger daughter Lauren is a professional horse trainer in north Jersey, and both daughters attended High School South. Gould’s wife, Susan, teaches in Lawrenceville.
All the squad volunteers have day jobs, which is why the township staffs a two-person ambulance crew on weekdays. Gould works as the chief technology officer at viaPeople, a Plainsboro-based company involved in HR assessment. He grew up in the Yardley area. His father was a mechanical and nuclear engineer for PSE&G and his mother was a bank accounts manager in Trenton. A physicist by training, Gould attended the Illinois Institute of Technology. In his career he has worked on the shuttle simulator at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, as well as serving as the director of system and networks at the John von Neumann supercomputing center, one of five supercomputer centers nationwide, which was located in Plainsboro.
This year Gould was elected chief for the fifth time, and he has previously served on the executive board as president three times.
According to Gould, the all-volunteer organization model is the most practical way to provide emergency services in the suburbs. It would be impractical to have more than one paid ambulance crew on call at all times, yet on infrequent occasions multiple ambulances are required, for example when multiple calls occur at around the same time, or when there is an emergency situation involving multiple people.
A city has multiple districts that cover each other’s territory, and while PRS has mutual aid agreements with neighboring townships, including West Windsor, Cranbury, Princeton, South Brunswick, and Rocky Hill, Gould says a group of local volunteers provides flexibility and sufficient ambulance crews in the event multiple calls come in.
“The nice thing having 50 plus EMTs, there’s a good chance one of our members is close by. We can always get out multiple ambulances,” Gould says. “There’s no practical way for a full time staff to staff three ambulances. Even if you could afford to have three crews at a time, it’s rare to have three calls at a time. It’s necessary in case, but it’s impractical to have people do nothing days at a time.”
Part time per diem EMTs and PRS volunteers provide backup to the Plainsboro Township EMS staff on weekdays. PRS has one ambulance crew available on weekday nights, though PRS volunteers monitor their pagers. Gould’s night is Friday, and he says he listens in on other nights.
In addition to his duties as squad chief, Gould also teaches EMS, first aid, CPR, and emergency driving. He credits the squad’s high service standards to the work of Harry Towner, a previous chief who has since retired and moved away. “Members from other squads tell us how bad it is in other areas,” Gould says.
The squad has a four-tier ranking system. Volunteers start out as trainees and can assist EMTs in the ambulance after taking courses and learning basics such as CPR. It generally takes three to four months of training and instruction to become an EMT. PRS has EMT IIs who work under supervision, and after 100 calls and additional training, volunteers become EMT Is, who can operate independently and go straight to an emergency scene. OICs, or officers in command, are experienced EMTs who train and supervise ambulance crews.
Displaying confidence and calm in response to emergency situations is a must for an emergency responder.
“No matter how serious, you revert to your training,” Gould says. “One of my early calls, we had a very smelly and messy scene. Even our chief was throwing up. Those of us that stayed calm, that was the best thing we could do.”
Dedication, of course, is another valued trait.
“We want people who can’t wait for the next call,” Gould says. “If I’ve been on a call, it’s a bloody, messy call like a rolled over vehicle, the best members are the ones who go ‘oh I wish I was on that call!’”
#b#Lucy Zhu#/b# joined as a cadet when she was 16 and a student at High School South. Eight years later she begins 2015 as the assistant chief.
“One of my brother’s friends was also a cadet on the squad,” Zhu says. “Right now I’m interested in healthcare, but back then I had zero interest in that. I wanted to help people. In high school a lot of my friends were volunteering at the library, sorting books, and I wanted to do more so I applied.”
After waiting a year, Zhu was interviewed and accepted into the cadet program. Her first call was on her birthday. It was Plainsboro Founder’s Day, in the first week of May, and she recalls being very excited, though she forgets the details.
This past year she accomplished an elusive goal: responding to more calls than Brian Gould.
“Brian is almost always the top responder. I finally beat him,” says Zhu, who answered 194 calls to Gould’s 190.
After graduating from South, Zhu majored in nutrition and biochemistry at McGill University and volunteered at PRS during school breaks. She works as an optometric technician at an eye doctor’s office in Plainsboro, and she also works as a per diem EMT for the township EMS. Her stint at PRS may come to an end soon, as she is currently applying to optometry school.
Both her parents are biologists: her mother works as a research specialist at Princeton University, and her father is a professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Lucy’s older brother, Mike, works in Shanghai and will begin business school in the fall. Younger brother Jason is a sophomore at South and is also a PRS cadet.
One of the most difficult aspects serving as an EMT, Zhu says, is not the technical medical response, but psychologically processing the aftermath.
“One of my first calls, I was in high school. It was the first time seeing a dead person in my life,” Zhu says. “I remember taking him to the hospital, and watching the family, I remember that was really hard.”
An emergency call a few years ago, also involving a patient who ultimately died, changed her perspective.
“It was only me and Brian. It was a CPR call. The patient went into cardiac arrest in the back of the ambulance,” Zhu says.
The paramedics were able to bring the patient back, but after delivering the patient to the hospital, Zhu later learned the patient went into cardiac arrest again and died. She and Brian returned to the hospital to see the patient and ran into the family.
“You would think it’s really sad. The family thanked us for coming back. It changed my perspective from feeling bad that I couldn’t save him, to thinking about my efforts giving the family time to say goodbye. From my training, I did the best I could. They couldn’t be brought back, but I tried. You’re there to help, you do what you can.”
Zhu started out as a cadet and recently served as a cadet adviser, interviewing and training current cadets. Before becoming assistant chief this year, Zhu was promoted to an OIC in supervision of an ambulance crew.
“When I first became an OIC, Brian would follow in his own car,” Zhu says. “He wouldn’t take credit for the call, but he wanted to make sure everything is okay. He would always be there just in case.”
At the facility, the squad lists everyone’s volunteer hours, and Zhu saw her total time last year exceeded 1,200 hours — more than 50 days. “The people there are like my family at this point. It is a home away from home; I’m there all the time. We are all friends. Everyone wants to ride with each other and take calls.”
In preparation for the recent blizzard warning, the squad was on snow standby. Twenty volunteers, enough for five full ambulance crews, showed up, and Zhu divided them up so there was a balance of experience in each crew.
It was ultimately an uneventful night, but the volunteers, as always, were prepared. Out came the board games and movies, as snow standby became one big slumber party.
How to Help: Individuals and businesses interested in donating money, goods, or services can E-mail office@plainsbororescuesquad.org or visit www.plainsbororescuesquad.org.
