Company celebrates 50th anniversary
Among volunteers, Louis Lombardo performed at an elite level.
The Philipstown resident, who died in June at age 81, answered about 8,500 calls during his 40 years as a member of the Garrison Volunteer Ambulance Corps, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary. When he wasn’t in an ambulance, Lombardo was in a fire truck for the Garrison Volunteer Fire Co. or driving a school bus.
During a ceremony at the Highlands Country Club on Oct. 20, GVAC dedicated a new ambulance to Lombardo, who operated Louis Lombardo and Sons Carting Service for more than 50 years.
His son, Louis Jr., said the trash collection business helped spark his father’s volunteerism. “Dad knew a ton of local people,” he said. “The whole community was on his garbage route.”
Every dog knew and loved Lombardo, who was generous with treats. “They knew when he was coming and waited for him,” Louis Jr. said. “But if I did his route for a day, the dogs might bite me because my father wasn’t there!”
In April 1990, while working at Graymoor, Louis Jr. jumped from a collapsing scaffold and injured his knee. “I crawled to the loading dock phone — no cellphones back then — and called GVAC,” he recalled. “My dad came flying up because the ambulance was kept at our house.”
David Lilburne, a Garrison bookseller who has been a GVAC driver for 25 years, noted that Lombardo was invaluable as “our GPS before there was GPS. He was a superstar; because of his garbage route he knew every location.”
Lilburne recounted a call to a home on Bill Brown Road, which didn’t appear on his map. “Fortunately, Louis was with me,” he said.
In its formative years, the organization relied on Lombardo and other volunteers familiar with local roads. Ambulance calls came into Garrison’s Landing via landline, where they were answered by Barbara Prescott, who called the GVAC volunteer who lived in that quadrant to verify the location. The system “worked beautifully,” Lilburne said.
While GPS made the job easier, GVAC faces a challenge that technology can’t solve: recruiting volunteers. The organization has 15 active members, and two salaried and three volunteer emergency medical technicians assist. In 2023, GVAC answered 495 calls.
At the Oct. 20 ceremony, GVAC president Jeff Altorfer called on the state Legislature to provide base-level funding to volunteer ambulance corps. He noted that, during the pandemic, medical crews were deemed “essential workers.” While that status is still recognized in surrounding states, it has lapsed in New York. “That may be a legislative opportunity if we were considered ‘essential,’ ” he said.
Altorfer emphasized the unusual nature of ambulance work, especially at vehicle crashes. “The only persons who matter in that moment are the victim and the responder,” he said. “You’re in a public place, but it’s a strangely private moment.” After those scenes, he said, no one remembers names and “victims don’t know who just saved their life.”
How to Help
GVAC received a $20,000 donation toward the $200,000 ambulance and is raising funds for the rest. Donations can be mailed to GVAC, P.O. Box 320, Garrison, NY 10524.
