National Volunteer Week, April 18-24, 2021
April 12, 2021 | Category: News
National Volunteer Week is celebrated April 18 – 24, 2021. In today’s society, volunteers are hard to come by in this industry and probably for most others for that matter. Our non-profit organization owes a lot to volunteerism. Cetronia Ambulance Corps was actually founded by 20 volunteers back in 1955.
Their goal was to improve the timeliness and quality of ambulance service for their families, community and future. Funds were tight but friends were abundant. Through contributed funds, events (and many hoagie sales), they raised enough for a well-used, but somewhat hard-running, Buick ambulance. Cetronia Ambulance Corps was born … but greater reliability and resourcefulness was clearly needed.
At that time in the 1950s and 60s, S&H green stamps were offered by many retailers as a sales incentive for customers. Save enough of them and they could be redeemed for a wide variety of rewards—household appliances, sporting goods or, in the case of the fledgling volunteer group from Cetronia, a new ambulance.
Thanks to a campaign by our founding volunteers, churches, businesses and frugal families throughout our community, Cetronia’s second lifesaving vehicle was a shiny, new Cadillac ambulance purchased entirely with S&H green stamps.
Today, we have a much smaller pool of volunteers, but all of them still have the same sense of community pride and dedication for our industry. We are grateful and excited to honor five of our main volunteers this year for their longstanding efforts to make us the best we can be:
Frank Bartholomew can be found volunteering for special events. He has been a staple with the Corps since 1981. Frank is a trained EMT and often manages the Pocono NASCAR Race events.
Robert Mangano has been assisting with making sure our facility is well taken care of since 1996. Rob manages the contracts for the grounds keeping and many of the indoor items such as plumbing, lighting, and paper goods product ordering, among many other tasks.
We also have the husband and wife dynamic duo team of Michael and Lynn Nagel. Michael is our director of facilities and project management. He has served the organization since 1971. Michael recently retired from his full-time job at Reading Area Community College. You can find Michael at our facility many, many hours each week taking care of the endless infrastructure items at hand. Lynn has been one of our core CPR instructors since 1987. She is also a current board member of our organization and chairs the Compliance Committee. You can also find Lynn assisting at our reception area and with finance and office tasks.
Ronald Thomas, our fleet manager, can be found in our services and parts area. Ron makes sure our vehicles are running top notch. Ron has been with the organization since 1976.
Cetronia Ambulance Corps would most certainly not be the organization we are today without all of the hard work and countless hours of dedication by all of our volunteers over the years. For that, we are grateful. Thank you for doing what you do to help us stay the course of our mission.