Have you ever saved a life? I have, and there is no other feeling like it in the world. With the exception of the day my first child was born I don’t think I ever felt the way I did that night.

It’s not a feeling that I can explain. No volunteer can explain it. The only way to truly understand it is to feel it yourself, to do that you have to step up and join us. More on that later.

Many people don’t understand what the life of a volunteer EMS and Fire Department member is really all about. That is what keeps many from joining.

Some think that we are paid for what we do. Others still think that all we do is sit around our headquarters all day and wait for a job. Then they ask why it is that it takes “forever” for an ambulance to get the house. Here’s what is really all about.

Let’s start by putting to rest some of the “urban legends” that surround volunteer Emergency Services.

One: EMS and Firemen are paid.

I wish. While some EMT’s and firemen do work for paid departments (to be fair I am a paid EMT from both a local hospital and another municipality) the members of Budd Lake FA and RS, Budd Lake Fire and Flanders Fire and First Aid are all, 100% volunteer. We receive no paycheck, no stipend, for the most part, no compensation what so ever.

In Mt. Olive we do get what is called the Length of Service Awards Program or LOSAP, which is kind of a retirement plan for us. We just don’t get LOSAP we have to earn it. You have to participate at a certain level and then the town contributes to the fund.

Two: EMS and firemen just like racing through traffic with a blue light.

OK, every department has a few members that only care about the size of the lights on their car. It is unavoidable. Whacker, jolly volley, call them what you will but the underlying reason to join is universal, to help others in their time of need.

Three: Most EMS and firemen have no life.

That sounds harsh but many think that we don’t. Like I already said, people think that all we do is sit around waiting for a job. That’s just not the case.

99.9 per cent of the time we are at home with our families or at a party or celebrating a holiday, then the pager goes off and out the door we go. 365 days a year, 24 hours a day we are there not knowing when the call will go out.

Being an Emergency Service volunteer isn’t like coaching Little League or a local basketball team. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that. I have done both and loved every minute of it but I always knew when my games were and what time I had to be at the gym for practice. It’s not like someone is going to call my house at 3 am during a blizzard to come play a basketball game.

As an EMT or fireman that’s what happens. We come out during blizzards, hurricanes, floods, heat waves. I guess we’re kind of like the Post Office, “neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night will keep us from our appointed rounds.” Except the fact that, again, we aren’t paid, our rounds aren’t really appointed and we don’t get holidays off.

Those are just three of the myths. Some of the old timers out there could give more but those are the three that get to me the most.

Why do all of this then? Why go though EMT school and Fire Fighter 1 and take class after class to improve our level of training? Why do all of this and not collect a paycheck?

Simple, we do it out of passion. We do it to help others at a time when they can’t help themselves. We do it when our friends, families and perfect strangers need us. In that rare occasion, we do it to save a life.

I say “rare occasion” because for the most part they are. I was a member of Budd Lake Rescue for two years before I even performed CPR on anything but a mannequin. Sure, I responded to a lot of calls but it wasn’t until a hot summer night that I actually helped save a life.

A perfect sequence of events has to take place before EMS can save a life. Whether it is paid or volunteer, everything has to go just right for it all to work.

On this night, the patient was found within minutes of collapsing at his door, a Budd Lake EMT was seconds from the residence and many of us happened to be at our headquarters for our weekly “clean up” drill. That alone freed up about seven minutes that were vital to the patient’s survival.

Now, we have done the same with not so perfect of circumstances, but this one will always stand out because it as my first.

On the way to the hospital we were able to feel a pulse when there wasn’t one just a few minutes before. We had MICU paramedics administering life saving medicines, we were performing CPR and used the Defibrillator to “jump start” the patient’s heart. It all worked according to plan and I was a part of it.

When we got to the hospital and the patient was placed on the cardiac monitor and seen by a doctor we saw that he had a good strong heartbeat. It was at that time that I really started to understand what we had done.

I heard someone in the background say, “way to go, you guys are heroes.” Then it all hit me, I started to shake, and I felt my eyes starting to well up. Being the tough guy, I went outside where no one could see and I broke down and cried. That was four years ago the last time I cried before that was my wedding day. I wouldn’t have another emotional breakdown like that till just this past year when my first child was born.

After a period of time the patient recovered and walked out of the hospital under his own power.

Still many people don’t understand why we do what we do and why they should come and join up. So, what is the payoff? Why go to school, take classes, give up holidays?

The answer is simple. It’s the smile on a child’s face when you bandaged up a cut and “made the boo boo go away”. It’s helping the senor citizen in the apartment next door feel like someone cares. It’s helping to give loved ones more time, even if just a few minutes, to say goodbye.

That is what makes it all worth it. That is the pay that we get, in full with out tax taken out. That is the pride and honor we feel when we see many of our brothers and sisters go into burning skyscrapers when everyone else is tying to get out. It’s making a difference.

I know in this day and age that free time is hard to come by. Most of us are two income families and free time is almost non-existent but don’t let that be the only reason. Don’t say, “There are others that do it, why should I give up my free time?”

The truth of the matter is that there will be a time and not to far off into the future when volunteer EMS and Fire will be just a memory. Taxes will possibly go up to pay for these services also health insurance may go up as well. What is more important, time or money? I invite everyone reading this to come and feel what I have felt and still feel.

I invite you to come a join a second family, one based in over half a century of pride, honor and tradition.

Visit the Budd Lake First Aid and Rescue Squad on Rt. 46 and see what it all about. If EMS isn’t for you but being a fireman might be, check out the Budd Lake Fire Department also on Rt. 46. If you live in Flanders visit Flanders Fire and First Aid on Main St. (Call Flanders and Budd Lake Fire for appropriate times.)

Maybe it’s something you can do and you join up. Maybe it’s not for you but at least you’ll walk away with a better understanding of who we are and want we do.