Student ambulance corps relaunches in Beacon
Hillary Williams, a senior at John Jay High School in Fishkill, sat in the patient care compartment of an ambulance, facing the rear of the vehicle, on a Tuesday last month in Beacon.
One by one, she called out items from a check sheet: Are the pads on the automatic external defibrillator expired? Is the battery on the device good? Is the oxygen cylinder filled and operating? Are there splinting devices on board?
Surrounding her inside the ambulance, five other teenagers — three girls and two boys — helped complete the rig check, their first task after reporting to the evening class. The teens are members of the Beacon Volunteer Ambulance Corps’ Junior Corps, a program that flourished decades ago but went dormant in the early 2000s.
Relaunched in 2023 as a class that meets twice a week, the program offers students the opportunity to become licensed EMTs before graduating high school. Bolstered last year by a Dutchess County grant that helped the nonprofit Beacon Volunteer Ambulance Corps (BVAC) purchase uniforms, equipment and “Annie,” a $13,000 training mannequin, the youth corps grew from one participant to 17 within a year.
Seven of the students, after learning CPR, first aid, radio communications and other skills over four to six months, can ride along on ambulance calls. Each works at least a four-hour shift, during which they assist and observe. After an emergency, they’ll break down the call with the staff, discussing the situation and what it required.
“We’re giving them lifesaving skills, but we also want to give them leadership skills,” said Piero Giangrasso, BVAC’s vice president, who noted that the longer-tenured students are expected to mentor the newer ones. “We’re teaching them to teach others.”
The hope is that the Junior Corps will spur interest in emergency medical care, a field in which low wages, burnout and limited opportunities for advancement have people “leaving in droves,” said Mike Zingone, BVAC’s executive director. In New York State, Giangrasso added, municipalities are required to provide fire and police protection but ambulance service isn’t considered essential.
BVAC has served Beacon since 1958, when a crew of volunteers began driving a refurbished 1948 Cadillac ambulance. It survived without municipal support until 2021, when regionwide issues with the mutual-aid system led the city to hire Ambulnz, an advanced-life support provider that also has contracts with Putnam County and Newburgh.
The City Council added $50,000 in its 2022 budget for BVAC to supplement Ambulnz coverage. Last year BVAC responded to 3,635 emergency calls, or an average of 10 per day.
The agency sees the youth program “like a farm league, to bring interest back into the field,” Giangrasso said. After the relaunch, word spread organically. “Kids started talking, and they understood what we have here,” he said.
Despite dwindling numbers statewide — one study reports a nearly 18 percent drop in EMS responders between 2019 and 2022 — Giangrasso said there’s plenty of interest among young people. Some apply to BVAC’s program to get a taste of medicine. Others will go into nursing or pre-med after graduating.
BVAC modeled its program after New York State’s EMT training criteria, which allow students as young as 17 to become certified. Two Beacon participants earned licenses this month after completing an additional semester-long course at Dutchess Community College.
Next month, Williams, the John Jay senior, will report to San Antonio, Texas, for advanced individual training in the U.S. Army. She plans to become a combat medic and said her time in the Junior Corps program “has given me real-world scenarios to think about.”
Cory Pittore, a rising sophomore at SUNY Purchase, was the first student to join the revamped BVAC program in 2023. His grandfather was an EMT and “I want to carry on his legacy and give back to my community,” Pittore said.
The Junior Corps is open to students ages 15 to 17 and requires at least three hours per week. See beaconvac.org/volunteer.
