POMPTON LAKES - RIVERDALE FIRST AID SQUAD

Early in the spring of 1935, seven concerned citizens, John T. Neal Jr., Arthur Gilbert, Frank Rathbum, Ernest Guenter, Olaf Haroldson, John Doyle, and Garret C. Houman, recognized a need for immediate ambulance service in the Pompton Lakes area.

A donation of $1,000.00 was made by Miss Elsie Kirkland, a local businesswoman, towards the purchase of an ambulance. Miss Kirkland's partner, Roger Vreeland, had been fatally injured in an accident on Wanaque Avenue and had died waiting for an ambulance to arrive from Saint Joseph's Hospital in Paterson.

Joe Louis, Heavyweight Champion of the world, was training in Pompton Lakes at the site of the present Elk's Club. An exhibition bout was given by Mr. Louis raising $2,620.35 for an ambulance.

In May 1935, a new Packard ambulance was purchased at a cost of $2,985.00. The Pompton Lakes First Aid Squad was incorporated on June 10,1935 and the new ambulance was put into service on July 4, 1935. The squad drew its members from the area it would serve. In addition to Pompton Lakes and Riverdale, the squad provided emergency service to Butler, Bloomingdale, Kinnelon, West Milford, Ringwood, Wanaque, Pequannock, Lincoln Park, Wayne, and Oakland. As the communities grew, and the need increased, these towns formed their own squads. The Pompton Lakes-Riverdale squad is proud to be the "Mother squad" to the squads serving these communities.

The squad has responded to over 49,000 calls since 1935 and purchased 30 ambulances during this time. Today, the squad houses two fully equipped ambulances at its headquarters on Ramapo Avenue in Pompton Lakes.

All squad members are certified as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) by the New Jersey State Department of Health. All EMT's are trained in the use of the semiautomatic external defibrillators, used to treat victims of sudden cardiac arrest. The training, available since November 1992, has enabled the squad to successfully defibrillate four residents in the past two years.

Progress has brought remarkable change to the service provided by the Pompton Lakes-Riverdale First Aid Squad over the past sixty years. Today the EMT's work in conjunction with paramedics from the local hospitals, the medivac helicopters, local emergency rooms, and regional trauma centers to provide the best emergency care. The squad's founders, using the latest first aid techniques of the time, had to transport the sick and injured to nearest hospitals in Paterson over old country roads. Some things, however, haven't changed. Like the concerned citizens of 1935 who had a vision of community service and successfully laid the foundation for the squad, today's members are striving to prepare the squad for the Twenty first Century.

With continued dedication, enthusiasm, and support, the Pompton Lakes-Riverdale First Aid Squad will provide emergency medical services through voluntary efforts, and at no charge to the public.

DID YOU KNOW?

There was an encampment of the 5th New Jersey Regiment - Spanish American War - in 1898 in the fields west of Ringwood Avenue, north of Pompton Reformed Church Cemetery.