Volunteer. You'll never regret it.

National Volunteers Week has just passed and with the spring season, you’ll find our Honeoye Falls-Mendon Volunteer Ambulances around the community a bit more often.  You may have seen us standing by at the recent Relay for Life or recruiting for our agency at the Dunkin Donuts Grand Opening.  Just a short while ago I was one of those people who saw recruiting information for the ambulance and signed up.  I haven’t had a moment’s regret since and would urge you to consider volunteering as well.  

The thing about medical emergencies is that they don’t discriminate.  Any one of us could find ourselves or someone we love frantically dialing 911, and waiting, hoping that the emergency medical services (EMS) personnel show up quickly.  When you find yourself in a life-threatening emergency, your number one priority is how fast that ambulance can be at your door.  

For just over 1,000 of our friends and neighbors who make that call each year, a Honeoye Falls Mendon Volunteer Ambulance screams to the rescue.  If you make that 911 call in our 68 square mile district, we immediately hit the road, and within minutes we’re providing life-saving care and comfort.

Simultaneously, one of our line officers is checking in with our volunteers to see who can staff our second ambulance while our on-duty crew is out.  Life threatening emergencies, after all, don’t pause while our crew is taking a call.  

Having two ambulances at our station and the ability to staff a second crew is not a luxury.  It saves lives. In fact, nearly ¼ of our calls occur when our first ambulance is responding to another emergency.

Our ambulances were able to respond to over 99% of the calls for our services last year, including those second calls.  For the past 8 years at least, we’ve been the region’s leader in call coverage.  We’ve been twice nominated agency of the year.  Our chief has been awarded Chief of the Year.  That’s thanks to the 20,000 plus hours that our volunteers invest in our district.  These volunteers who respond do so because they deeply love our community and are driven by a desire to help those in it.  In an emergency, they think of nothing except getting to your side as quickly as possible.  

We are proud of our agency’s work.  That said, we are always looking for ways to improve our training, our performance, and our efficiency.  However, our number one priority is always maintaining the quality services that we provide to our district.

The volunteers that I work with in this agency have spent countless hours of free time to help improve the health and quality of life of their neighbors. In fact, it is not uncommon for us to literally save the lives of the people of this great community.  Our volunteers don't do this because they get paid or because they get some great recognition.  They do it for a simple calling to serve others.  If you would like to return the favor, consider checking out our website for ways that you can help.  Consider working with us to help maintain the quality services that we provide to the citizens of Mendon and the surrounding neighborhoods.