Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps answers more than 5,000 calls a year now — a number that keeps climbing as Riverhead grows and visitors pour into town each season. But ask the volunteers and officers what keeps them coming back, and they rarely talk about numbers.
And they talk about the moment chaos gives way to calm when an ambulance crew walks through the door.
National EMS Week begins Sunday, May 17, and Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance Corps will kick it off with its annual open house from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at its Osborn Avenue headquarters. The family-friendly event will feature Chinese auction prizes, a dunk tank, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office K9s and traffic safety demonstrations, raffles and activities for children. Visitors will also have an opportunity to meet RVAC volunteers and learn about joining the organization.
For Assistant Chief A.J. Rado, 31, joining the corps changed the course of his life.
“This was actually not in my plans at all,” Rado said.
At the time, he was working at a car dealership and planned to move into management. Then his grandmother needed an ambulance.
“I just kind of saw what they did for her,” he said. “They were professional. They really did good for her. And I said, I want to do that.”
Today, Rado works full-time in EMS, holds additional per diem jobs, runs a CPR training company and volunteers as RVAC assistant chief. But what drives him, he said, has little to do with money.
“Just being able to help somebody out,” he said. “Even if it’s psychologically helping, just that gratitude … you go into what seems to be a chaotic situation, and they see you take over, and then it’s just a calmness to everybody.”
That sense of reassurance is something many Riverhead residents know firsthand.
Source: RiverheadLOCAL
