In December, the Greater Princeton & Far Beyond Branch of AYLUS (GPA) continued its holiday greeting event to first aid and rescue squads, firefighters, police officers, and so many real heroes in our community, who sacrifice a lot to save lives, and deserve our honor and respect, especially in this holiday season.
On June 14th, 1958 at 1:30 am The Millburn-Short Hills First Aid Squad answered its first call, and has served the community continuously since that day. The Chairman of Volunteers announced that a total of 45 volunteers would begin a first aid course on January 30, 1958. After certification by the NJ State First Aid Council on May 27, 1958, MSHVFAS was chartered with thirty-three members. In June 1958, a used 1958 Cadillac ambulance was donated by the Junior League. The squad was able to purchase a second Cadillac ambulance in 1960.
The squad originally had makeshift space at the township’s Public Works garage. As the number of members grew and call volume increased, the squad recognized the need for its own building. To that end, December of 1966 saw the dedication of a new squad building at Glen Avenue and Lackawanna Place. A crew room was added in 1975 to provide a place for crew training. Initially, the squad was dispatched by telephone. The “bell” was installed in crew chief’s homes, which allowed police to activate a call. In 1972, the Squad graduated from telephone dispatching to a plectron radio system. The change gave the squad members greater mobility and enabled them to be in radio contact at all times. With the squad’s eye always geared to training and updating equipment, in December of 1975, the first GMC Transmode was purchased. This “emergency room on wheels” was the first of its kind in the country.
To keep up with the ever-increasing need for upgraded communications, 1983 saw the squad purchase a new, state of the art Minitor radio system. The pager-size radio, radio receiver coupled with the squad establishing its own radio frequency, brought our communications systems to a more advanced state of modern technology. This communication system is the same one we use today. In 1986, the building was expanded to accommodate a third state-of-the-art ambulance.
Led by Laetitia Huang (12/3, 4-6 pm, 2 hrs), GPA members (12/3, 5-6 pm, 1 hr for all) Justin Lambert, Timothy Xie, Jeff Lin, Jacob Li, Kevin Li, James Li, Eric Chen, and Joshua Liu prepared best wishing cards, collected donation items, joined for the event and delivered the gifts to the real heroes at Millburn Short Hills Volunteer First Aid Squad (188 Glen Ave).
