After being nominated earlier this year, the Lavallette First Aid squad was named New Jersey “Outstanding EMS Agency” at the recent New Jersey Statewide Conference on EMS.
Nominations that had come from the general public or from other agencies whose members felt the need to make that presentation, said Stephen J. Brennan, Ocean County EMS Coordinator. The award is based on a squad’s achievements in the areas of patient care, public access to services, disaster preparedness, training and education.
“Since 1942, this agency serves the residents and visitors of the upper shores region, made up entirely of volunteers,” said Brennan, who credited the Lavallette squad with taking “meaningful and visible steps to assure the quality of patient care, personnel and taking steps to improve response time and education.”
“This is a family,” said Councilman James G. Borowski, who has been an active member of the squad for 18 years. “We’re like brothers and sisters – sometimes fighting cousins – but we get the job done.”
“These are the people who deserve this award, and I take my hat off to all of you,” he told his fellow members at an award presentation Monday night.
The squad consists of 20 active volunteer members who operate two ambulances, a four wheel drive ambulance and a four wheel drive EMS SUV that is used on the beach and during snowstorms.