User:Joy Weiler/sandbox

New Holland Ambulance Association (NHAA) is a volunteer Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agency located in New Holland, Pennsylvania. NHAA provides dedicated EMS to the New Holland Borough and the surrounding Earl and East Earl Township. This coverage area is approximately 50 square miles with a population of 25,000. The ambulances and crew quarters are housed at 101 East Franklin Street in the borough of New Holland.

Mission Statement

  “The mission of New Holland Ambulance Association is to serve the individuals within New Holland and the surrounding area during illness, injury, accidents, or other emergency situations. This mission also includes the performance of other charitable acts and public service that may aid in the welfare of the people of New Holland and the surrounding vicinity.”

Staffing

  NHAA is a Basic Life Support (BLS) agency with staff who are trained as Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT). NHAA also provides intermittent Intermediate Advanced Life Support as required by the nature of the emergency. Several providers are trained to the Intermediate level and can offer this care. NHAA provides 24/7 emergency medical care to the community and is largely staffed by volunteers. Over 60 active volunteers staff the ambulances every night and all weekend with three paid staff members supplementing during the daytime hours. NHAA normally has two volunteer crews that remain in station throughout their shift, staffing two of the ambulances. The third and fourth ambulances are staffed by volunteers who respond from their homes or jobs. 

Services

  NHAA responds to approximately 1800 emergencies per year with this number growing each year. There is currently a fleet of four Ambulances that respond to 911 calls as well as a sqaud and an ATV used for events and special operations. NHAA works closely with the Lancaster County Emergency Communications Center, which is responsible for receiving 911 calls, and dispatching Emergency services. 

  In accordance with their mission, NHAA provides various services to the community that go beyond EMS. 

• NHAA provides First Aid, CPR, and Stop the Bleed training. They are intent on training as many members of the community as possible to be able to provide care in an emergency. These classes are taught in Doctor’s offices, schools (NHAA recently taught all the local school district teachers and placed 90 tourniquets in the Garden Spot High School), Daycares, Businesses, Churches, and Boy Scouts. NHAA also provides all the local Firefighters and Police Officers free training.
• An AED program is in place as well with 78 AED's distributed throughout our community in schools, businesses, grocery stores, daycares, churches, etc.
• NHAA hosts an annual food and coat drive to support CrossNet Ministries and the New Holland food bank.
• In 2013, NHAA offered their first six-month EMT training course, and has offered one each year since then. Their goal is to provide excellent, cost efficient training for prospective EMTs. Since the first class, NHAA has helped to certify over 100 new EMTs, many of them now serving in volunteer capacities.
• NHAA is dedicated to child safety and is a Car Seat Safety Inspection site with several members who are certified as Car Seat Safety Technicians through Safe Kids Worldwide.
• NHAA provides standby services at public events, such as 5k races, church and school events, business open house celebrations, marathons, concerts, the New Holland Fair, the National Night Out Police Event, and the local Garden Spot School District athletic department events.
• NHAA hosts an annual Kids Safety Day, providing education to children and parents about bike safety, farm safety, water safety, poisoning, How to Use 911, and various other topics.

History

New Holland Ambulance Association was founded in 1945. A note on a company record referencing the New Holland Machine company reads, “Sperry New Holland was a budding company in a small town that had no ambulance service. The company took the leadership in a fund drive, contributing a large portion of the money needed to obtain an ambulance.” The fund drive was run from January to February 1944.

On February 1, 1945 a used ambulance was purchased from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and transported to New Holland atop a New Holland Machine Company truck. It was placed in service shortly thereafter. An excerpt from a local newspaper read, “ ‘If only one life is saved through New Holland having an ambulance, it will be worth all the money we put into it…’ New Holland is naturally going to have a sense of pride when ambulance service is provided by the town, since it is a move in the direction of community progress; and no loyal New Hollander desires that the two-hundred-year-old town shall ever stand still. And among the things to which we will ‘point with pride’ will be a publicly-owned and community-maintained vehicle, available at all times and immediately for errands of mercy. But the prime motive for the ambulance project remains… ‘If only one life is saved…it will be worth it all.’ The movement is definitely in the interest of individual welfare.”

In May of 1945, three months after the company was founded, a local newspaper reported that the company had responded to thirty-two calls from February to May. Reports sent out in a later fundraising brochure indicated that in the first eleven months the ambulance ran eighty-one calls. This same report stated that while “at one time no one was quite sure how great this need was… we are no longer uncertain about the need.”

Timeline:

• January 27-February 10, 1944: First ambulance fund drive, initiated by Sperry New Holland.
• February 1, 1945: Ambulance Service commenced with a used ambulance secured in Grand Rapids Michigan.
• October 1947: NHAA bought their first new ambulance, a Henny Packord.
• Sept 3, 1953: First Cadillac Ambulance purchased.
• May 24, 1975: Dodge Van ambulance purchased for $23,000. It is placed in service alongside the current Cadillac. For the first time, NHAA has two ambulances in service.
• 1988: NHAA bought their first Ford E series box Ambulance.
• Feb 2013: NHAA is the first BLS agency in the county to place a Lucas device in service.
• 2013: NHAA hosts their first EMT class, graduating 19 students.
• January 2018: NHAA is the second BLS agency in the county to receive an Intermediate Advanced Life Support license.