Once upon a time...

Emergency medical services has gone through many changes over the past 40 years. Until the middle 1960's, funeral homes transported sick and injured people to the hospital. Funeral home directors and staff were often uncertified and only provided rides to the emergency department out of courtesy or fear that the patient may not survive the transport.

A paradigm shift was taking place as public awareness increased toward the end of the 1960's. Volunteer rescue squads such as St. Michael's Rescue emerged while ski patrols became more common. This caused community members to ask why Essex could not start their own rescue squad to cover Essex, Essex Junction, Westford, Underhill, and Jericho. A small group of dedicated community members lead by Ed Ziemer, Bill Bingham, Tom Raub, Don Hamlin, Lloyd and Norma Edwards, and Florence and Marvin Campbell among others began to build support for such an organization in the Summer of 1971. Most of the original group were involved in the Smuggler's Notch or Bolton Valley Ski Patrols. To supplement their knowledge of emergency care, they enrolled in the American Red Cross First Aid Course. This 10 hour class taught basic first aid skills and affirmed their desire to start a new rescue squad. Once certified in first aid, Essex Rescue went into service on October 1, 1971.

Funding their mission was accomplished through community, municipal and member donations. With the original money raised, Essex Rescue was able to purchase a new $9,000 ambulance and medical supplies. The Essex High School was generous enough to donate a bay to store the ambulance. In the year that followed, additional money and labor was donated to construct a building next to the Essex High School at 1 Educational Drive. One of the most notable labor donations made to Essex Rescue was from the vocational students at the Essex High School. Their hard work lead to the construction of the old wing.

You might be asking yourself how Essex Rescue was notified of calls in that first year of service if there was no building for crew members to receive calls. The original dispatch system relied on pagers and a "red phone" system that allowed each crew captain to hear an emergency call placed to the Essex Rescue emergency number. The emergency number, 878-8300 was routed to an answering service run by Mrs. Duquette. Each of the crew captains had a red phones in their home or office that allowed them to keep informed as to what calls were going out. In years that followed, radios replaced the need for red phones.