Three Jefferson County ambulance services celebrate their 50th anniversaries together

BROCKWAY, Pa. (WTAJ)– Brockway, Reynoldsville and Sykesville ambulance services celebrated their 50th anniversaries together at the Brockway Area Ambulance Station Sunday afternoon.

All three were founded in 1973 after a new law changed the responsibility of transporting and treating patients away from the coroner’s office.

“They wanted to get back to just doing the undertaker instead of treating patients and taking them to the hospital,” president of Reynoldsville Ambulance Service Daniel Stitt said. “They actually used to take them to the hospital.”

The groups posed for pictures before eating, with Syesville arriving last because they were responding to a call. Sykesville Senior EMT Robbie Umbaugh says that while it is hardwork, it’s the people in the community and those he works with that keep him coming back.

“I’ve been in EMS since 2001, just celebrated 18 years yesterday as an EMT,” Umbaugh said. “It’s a family thing.”

Brockway Area Ambulance EMT Gregory Castiglione said that he’s been working in emergency services his whole life. He says there is one big difference that sticks out from when they started.

“We had enough people at that time that we covered two shifts a day, 24 hours a day seven days a week,” said Castiglione. “It was pretty easy. Now we see the struggle with volunteerism and trying to get people certified and get them here to help.”

All of the departments say that volunteers are hard to come by, as it has been a growing problem statewide for years. Castiglione says that people need to understand the importance of being able to serve their community at a moment’s notice.

“It’s been a downward progression of lack of help,” Castiglione said. “We’re trying to get people in their communities because as much as we have people come from out of town to help cover shifts, at night when there is nobody here, that’s when it is tough.”