WHEN Sheryl Bennett moved to Spotsylvania County from Pittsburgh in 2002 she felt comforted that the Wilderness fire and rescue station was less than a mile down the road from her new home.
So when her husband's heart condition warranted an ambulance ride, Bennett confidently called 911 and waited.
And waited.
She called 911 again.
And waited.
After about 20 minutes, a fire truck arrived. No ambulance.
The problem, she was told, was that it was after 3 p.m. on a Friday. Company 7 was manned Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
"My jaw dropped," Bennett recalled recently. "How could they not be there all the time?"
A year later, a similar situation--this time a nearby house fire--prompted Bennett to take action.
She circulated a petition among her neighbors urging round-the-clock EMS and fire coverage at Company 7, which is on Orange Plank Road near Wilderness Battlefield.
"I don't think anybody knew it was not manned [all the time]," said Melissa Baker, a founding member of the Spotsylvania Coalition for 24/7 Fire and Emergency Services. The coalition was Bennett's idea.
More than 300 people living in the subdivisions surrounding Company 7 signed the petition.
Now, the station is manned from
"They've been behind us in getting staffing," said Spotsylvania County Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Terry Snellings. And not just at Company 7. By asking questions, the coalition prompted supervisors to consider emergency services.
"It's been a phenomenal evolution of learning on our part on what our county has--the resources, the dedication, the red tape," Bennett said.
Almost immediately, the group "adopted" Company 7.
Even before the coalition was organized, the neighborhood started holding fundraisers. "Company 7 had needs not being met," said Bennett. So the residents raised $5,000 with a chili cook-off and silent auction. A community cookbook organized by Baker was unveiled with a bake sale and tasting. Two printings later, the cookbook has brought in $10,000 for Company 7.
Bennett parlayed that $15,000 into much more, though, always asking merchants for items that she knows are on Company 7's wish list. "She never misses an opportunity, everywhere she goes," said Baker.
And the community outreach goes both ways. The folks manning Company 7 attend the fundraising events and have conducted demonstrations for the residents. "There's a bond there," said Baker.
Helping to foster that closeness was a program called Meals to Seven. The residents provided potluck meals to the paid and volunteer crews at Company 7. "We've become as real to them as they've become real to us," said Bennett.
It wasn't always that way.
"We were looked upon as intruders," Bennett said about the early overtures the neighbors made to the fire and rescue workers. They didn't understand the neighbors, and there was suspicion on the part of the emergency personnel. "The relationship is very good now," said Bennett. "We're seen as partners."
Kevin Dillard, administrative chief
Meals for Seven was a big turning point, he said. "They put forth the extra effort and came out for each duty team," said Dillard. The group provided the meals and brought the neighbors along, too. For their part, company members did educational seminars for the residents. There was a lot of one-on-one time, Dillard said.
However, the coalition's interest doesn't stop at Company 7. It was very involved in creating the revenue recovery program in Spotsylvania County, which collects money from insurance companies for ambulance rides.
"Originally it was a provocative idea," said Bennett. "The county was guarded in considering it."
Dillard said county supervisors had rejected the idea the first time the rescue workers suggested it. "[The coalition] helped move it along," he said. "They helped us educate people."
Now that the county has implemented the plan, the coalition is keeping a close watch on the funds.
"We are remaining vigilant," said Bennett. "We want to make sure the money remains dedicated to staffing and response time, not capital costs."
"They don't mind speaking their minds," Snellings said. The group's involvement in many of the issues important to fire and rescue has nudged those issues along. "It would be that much slower without them," Snellings said.
The group has its sights set on a new project: a public safety communications tower in the Wilderness area. Bennett said the area is a black hole, where rescue and law enforcement workers can't communicate by radio with each other. Company 7 is the ideal location for that tower, said Bennett.
"They jumped right on that bandwagon doing everything they could to keep it at the top of everybody's list," Dillard said. The pieces for the tower are now lying in back of Company 7's station. "[The coalition] won't let it lie there too long," laughed Dillard.
As the coalition becomes better known and expands its reach, it hopes that neighborhoods surrounding the other fire and rescue stations in Spotsylvania County adopt their rescue workers, too. "It's good when people within a community know who their fire and rescue people are," Dillard said. He remembers when fire halls were central to a community. "[The coalition has] brought some of that back."
To reach ANNETTE JONES:
Email: abjones@freelancestar.com
Want to know more? Visit the coalition's Web site, spotsy24-7.org. The site shares some of the accomplishments of the coalition, has a plethora of links to other county sites and includes a "firehouse cookbook." |
Neighborly gifts Kevin Dillard, administrative chief for Company 7, said the coalition "is very good about asking us about what our needs are." The coalition has obtained a number of items for the company. To make the station seem more like home: Dishwashers Washing machine and clothes dryer Toaster, pots and pans, dish towels Bed comforters, sheets, pillows, mattress pads Bedroom and living room curtains Recliners and sofas To help the rescue workers do their jobs: Oceanid RDC water rescue craft Stearns ice rescue suits EMSAT subscription Ad campaign for Firefighter 1 class Shed Photocopier |