VIEWPOINT: Grace Under Fire

By Adele Kristiansson

Drive along North Sea Road and you’ll see that Southampton Volunteer Ambulance is building the framework for a new generation.

A year ago, we broke ground on our new headquarters. Despite supply chain delays and inflationary headwinds, our floor is poured, steel girders are set, ductwork, pipes and siding are taking shape. We hope to occupy our new home by fall.

By every metric, we’ve burst the seams of the 3,600-square-foot building we constructed in 1989, when our founding members effected the transfer of authority between VFW Post 7009 and the newly formed Southampton Volunteer Ambulance. Our board’s first order of business was to find a property and build our current headquarters. That year, we had 350 calls.

Our board quickly realized that we would need room to grow: Our second order of business was to plan for future expansion.

So, a generation ago, we planned for the construction you see today. Step by step, over the past 24 years, we’ve held and executed that vision.

First, we conducted a 12-month study of our calls to map the epicenter of call volume within our 40-square-mile district. We based the most efficient location of our future building upon minimum response time to any call. That study proved that our selected site was within one-eighth of a mile of the most efficient HQ location.

Then, in 1998, our neighbor approached us with an offer to buy his 1½-acre commercial lot. He offered to hold the mortgage, and we closed on the property in 2000.

When we approached the Town of Southampton for help in our expansion five years ago, they were surprised and delighted that we had already secured a debt-free property, and we were able to negotiate with the town as partners.

Now, as we crest 1,100 calls annually, we plan to occupy a footprint of 8,400 square feet. We look forward to assembling for monthly meetings, drills and training in a dedicated meeting room, with whiteboard and modern audio-visual equipment — instead of on our current truck floor, in the bays where we park our two ambulances and first responder vehicle.

We’re trading up from two La-Z-Boy recliners to dedicated bunk rooms with bedding that will bring comfort to night shifts, facilitate duty crew readiness, and ease our muster for crisis- and weather-related stand-bys. Soon, we’ll have bathrooms, with shower and laundry facilities, so we can refresh ourselves after grueling calls and long shifts.

Most importantly, we’ll have space to host the public, so we can strengthen ties with community groups and open our house to trainings in “Stop the Bleed,” CPR, basic first aid and emergency preparedness.

Beyond the planning and funding of these tangible assets, our most essential stewardship rests in the long-term cultivation of our human assets. A volunteer ambulance is an elegant bio-feedback mechanism for procreating talent to nourish Southampton’s public service sector and general wellness. We visit nursery schools to imprint a child’s first impression of safety, 911 and calling for help.

To many parents and children, our constant presence and kindness is the face of safety. We help Scouts earn their safety merit badges. We stand by at High School Safety Day to demonstrate skills and career possibilities. We stand by at community carnivals, fundraising and sporting events — like the U.S. Open, which, while being an economic bonanza, is a logistical nightmare. We advise businesses on their AED locations and train employees in CPR. We help put the “There” there in town celebration: populating the July 4 parade and the December Parade of Lights in Southampton Village.

We foster close relationship with fire departments and police departments, recruit and train their juniors. Many of our members have used their Southampton Volunteer Ambulance experience to springboard into college and public safety careers that keep them in the community, securing jobs in police, fire, traffic control, dispatch, nursing, home health, EMS as paid medics, and the U.S. Military. Many of our members come from families who serve the community across several generations, while others have found us to be a welcome way to integrate.

So, as we raise the roof on our new headquarters, during this annual EMS Week, I raise my hat to our 50 volunteers and paid staff. Supporting the steel framework you see on the outside is a stronger human framework I see on the inside. Our tangible assets pale in comparison to the contribution of our human assets. Our people are the heart of our operation, and we circulate throughout the community. Their dedication, teamwork and attention to detail brings humanity into crisis, and can crystallize a medical intervention into a moment of profound comfort and exquisite care.

That’s what keeps me running calls.

Time and again, I’m privileged to witness fluid kindness bloom into a breath of hope.

An off-duty EMT rushes to scene as she recognizes the address of a family friend.

A gentle explanation to a disoriented elderly patient quietly progresses resistance into trust and acceptance. Calming a frightened family resolves crisis into an action plan. Finding the dolly near a broken car lets a 6-year-old bring her best friend to the hospital, too. Calculating minutiae for a Medevac decision affords the advanced trauma care that gives family time to arrive for last goodbyes.

Mostly, I admire our team’s grace under fire, how we resiliently assemble ourselves to meet each collective challenge. Which, this year, has resulted in three saves — we arrive at a patient with no heartbeat, and they leave the hospital neurologically intact.

So, this spring, as you plan your parties and Hampton pleasures, know that some among us are monitoring traffic patterns, noting behavioral risks to safety, observing the ebb and flow of our summer crowds, quietly calculating how and where we might be needed, and the shortest response time to get there.

You might see our green lights in your rear-view mirror, or we might be standing next to you in the grocery line.

We live here.

Adele Kristiansson is an EMT/driver with Southampton Volunteer Ambulance. She lives in Water Mill.