Published: May 20, 2008 10:14 am         

The Value of a Leaf

Ambulance service seeking donations for protective suits

FROSTBURG - Who could estimate the value of a leaf?

The Frostburg city government, that's who - and anybody who ever needed an ambulance.

Each leaf is worth exactly $931, which is exactly the cost of a suit of protective clothing that will keep members of the Frostburg Area Ambulance Service safe from all sorts of blood-borne pathogens when they respond to a vehicle crash on Interstate 68, a fire at an industrial building, an injury at an athletic event or a fall from a ladder at a home near you.

Donate the cash for a suit so that one of your friends or neighbors can be protected while helping you and you get your name on a leaf of a tree painted on the Main Street window at City Hall.

"The mayor and City Council has already decided to give the ambulance service $25,000 during the next fiscal year instead of the usual $15,000," said City Administrator John Kirby on Monday.

The increase in city money and the community effort to raise additional funds comes on the heels of a request in March by Wayne Lewis, president of the ambulance service, for the city to pay $47,000 so that volunteers could dress in the style required for safety.

"We already have the suits for our 16 paid employees," Lewis said Monday. "We want the volunteers to be protected as well."

A set of protective clothing includes a $311 jacket, $241 pants, $82 helmet, $57 gloves, $41 goggles and $195 boots.

The ambulance service, with a primary response area of 13,000 people, will go ahead and purchase 30 new suits and use money that comes in via the fundraiser to refill accounts dedicated to the purchase of new ambulances. Lewis said volunteers have been measured and the new suits will be lettered locally before going out on calls in about a month or two.

City Councilman Richard Weimer and Barbara Armstrong of Armstrong Insurance are preparing to seek 50 stakeholders who will each come up with $931.

"Whether it be a church or a civic or fraternal club or a school, each stakeholder could pay in installments of, say, $100 a month," Armstrong said. "Sporting organizations would make great stakeholders. Ambulances often respond to athletic games."

Armstrong, who has reached into her own pocket to help the city with other community efforts, said if there was ever an effort behind which the community should unite, the purchase of this protective clothing is it.

The suits are needed, Lewis said, when crews respond to anything from a stabbing to a car wreck. "We had both in the last few days," he said.

Any body fluid has the potential to infect an ambulance crew member. "We respond to a lot of alcohol poisoning calls at our local university and it isn't uncommon for the person to throw up on someone."

Lewis pointed out that donations to the ambulance service are tax-deductible.

"These ambulance crews have been helping Frostburg since 1975 and it's time we helped them," Armstrong said. "I made Erie Insurance Group aware of the need and they are purchasing two suits," she said.

With these being tight fiscal times for the city, it became obvious that the municipality could not foot the entire $47,000 bill for clothing, according to Weimer. "We will also be glad to accept whatever donation a person can make, whether it's $25 or $50," Weimer said (City of Frostburg, P.O. Box 440, Frostburg, MD 21532).

Frostburg has a part-time paid crew from midnight to 6 p.m. daily and another paid crew from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, according to Lewis. Volunteers answer most of the calls that come in between 6 p.m. and midnight. About 50 or so of the service's 60 members respond to calls.

"We tend to take ambulance service for granted," said Mayor Arthur Bond. "These volunteers are special and essential for our lives."

There are three ambulances to serve Frostburg area residents.

"We station ambulances at Mountain Ridge (high school) games and at some Frostburg State (University) games and concerts," Lewis said. "It is common for us to be called to have a medic respond to a mutual-aid incident in Westernport or Garrett County."

"We have made contact with officials at FSU and they are very interested in helping with this fundraising effort," Kirby said.

During 2007, ambulances responded to 1,269 calls.

To inquire or become a stakeholder, contact Jerilyn Jackson at Frostburg's Main Street office at (301) 689-6900.

Contact Michael A. Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.