| 6/30/2009 10:16:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| 35TH ANNIVERSARY — The Lake Mills Emergency Medical Service celebrated its 35th year with an open house Sunday afternoon at the EMS station on Lake Street. Food and music were part of the event and the newly refurbished ambulance was available for tours. Pictured above are charter EMS members Sally Kressin and Korky Korban, and Chuck Happel. — Photo by Randy Radtke. |
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Lake Mills EMS marks 35th year
By Randy Radtke
Special to the Union
LAKE MILLS - In a day when most nonprofit organizations are scrambling to fill their ranks, the Lake Mills Emergency Medical Service finds itself in the enviable position of three key people being able to donate even more of their time to the volunteer service.
It's not like the trio is trying to make up for lost time, either. Sally Kressin, Chuck Happel and LeRoy "Korky" Korban have been with the Lake Mills EMS since Day One and between them have 105 years of service to the community and the surrounding area.
That fact and the 35th anniversary of the founding of the volunteer medical service were celebrated on Sunday with an open house at the EMS station on East Lake Street.
"I can't say that I knew that we'd still be involved," said Happel. "We all had full-time jobs. I was at Hamlin, Sally was teaching in Johnson Creek and Korky had his painting business."
Kressin said she also had no idea she would be even more involved in the EMS today than she was in 1974.
"It's just a way of life now for the three of us," she reflected. "Korky says he's retired and I'm retired too, so we both have more time to commit to the service. Chuck is available on call more thanks to his changing of jobs. He now works with the state of Wisconsin's EMS office.
Back in 1974, the three ended up in the proverbial same place at the same time via different paths.
"I always wanted to do something in the medical field and I thought I was too old to become a nurse, and I thought joining the EMS was the way to go," said Kressin.
"I got asked by Fire Chief Tom Christoffel to get involved on behalf of the Lake Mills Fire Department," noted Happel.
"I was hanging around with Bill Hanson and he dragged me to the first meeting," Korban said with a smile. "During the meeting, he turned to me and said 'Let's do this' and it sounded like a good idea back then."
Korban added that the trio had common motivation to attend the first meeting that led to the formation of the Lake Mills EMS.
"What spurred us was that one day in the spring of 1973, it took more than 45 minutes to get an ambulance from Watertown to Lake Mills to assist a car accident victim," said Korban. "There was no service in Lake Mills at that time and we all felt that needed to change."
"There was no way of knowing that we were going to survive the first year, much less 35 years," added Kressin. "We all just had Red Cross First Aid. There were no EMT classes offered anywhere back in the 1970s and we were operating on a shoestring budget. None of us envisioned what we've become today. We started out (with our one unit) in Bill Hayes' driveway and probably had seven or eight other stations in between the driveway and where we're located today."
"Some of those places were pretty interesting," Korban added. "Like the one place where we'd watch the bats fly in and out."
"Another place had the raccoons that literally fell from the ceiling," added Kressin.
"And then there's the fact that we've always depended on volunteers," added Happel. "There were some interesting things that happened over the years."
Because there was no money in the beginning, crew members had to be notified about calls by telephone because there were no pagers.
"When we finally got our first group of pagers, we had so few of them that they had to be checked out at the start of a shift and returned at the end of the shift," Happel recalled. "We've come a long way since then and it's a credit to our volunteers and the community that we are where we are today."
Where the Lake Mills Emergency Service is today is a living tribute to Happel, Korban and Kressin.
The EMS displayed a renovated ambulance at its open house on Sunday. The renovation, which included a new chassis, cost the all volunteers service $90,000.
Instead of a badly worn shoestring, the service now has an annual budget of $147,000 with a team of 41 drivers and EMTs to aid those in need throughout the Lake Mills area.
In its first year, the service responded to 39 calls. Last year, the EMS logged 650.
The one thing that hasn't changed, however, is the all-volunteers nature of the service.
"So far, we've been lucky that people keep steeping forward to volunteer, but that could change from what I've seen around the state," said Happel.
"We do have a dedicated group of volunteers," agreed Kressin. "And people in the community are still coming through for us. When we've needed something, like renovating the rig, they've responded. You can't ask for more than that. I'm proud of what we've done with the community's help."
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