Hoboken High School receives fully equipped ambulance

[WAS967 97]

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High School's ambulance christened at `wet down' ceremony

By Tom Jennemann and

Diana Schwaeble

Reporter staff writers

Hoboken High School recently became the first school in New Jersey, and one

of the first in the country, to receive its own fully equipped ambulance.

The ambulance, which was donated by the Blairstown Ambulance Corps, will be

used by the school's Emergency Response Team, an after-school club where

students learn what to do when an emergency arises. Also, the district

recently received a $26,000 federal Youth Organized for Disaster Action

grant, which will pay to stock the ambulance.

A great opportunity

According to Joseph Miele, the district's coordinator of service learning,

he had heard that Blairstown Ambulance Corps was about to sell one of its

older ambulances, and he asked if they would donate it rather than sell it.

Even though Blairstown had received five offers on the vehicle, they saw the

intrinsic value of donating it to Hoboken High's Emergency Response Team.

Two weeks ago, after the ambulance was fully detailed and ready to be put

into service, members of Blairstown were in Hoboken for a ceremonial "wet

down," which is the typical christening of an ambulance or a fire truck.

This tradition consists of hosing down the vehicle, which is followed by a

by a big party.

Curtis Lambert, president of the Blairstown Ambulance Corps, presented the

title of the vehicle to Miele and the Hoboken High students.

"We're happy to be down here," said Lambert. "It's a worthy cause. I'm more

than happy to donate it."

According to Miele, the ambulance will mostly be used as a training vehicle,

but it is fully insured. First to respond to any accident will be the

regular Hoboken Volunteer Ambulance Corp. If they can't respond, then there

is a mutual aid agreement between surrounding communities for them to

respond. If neither group is able to respond, the ERT will be called, said

Miele. Also, if there is a major regional disaster, the EMT can respond.

Mayor David Roberts, who was at the wet down, said that the Emergency

Response Team is an excellent program.

"I'm very grateful to the town of Blairstown for the generous donation. I'm

proud of the students for participating in the program under the direction

of Joe Miele," Roberts said. "Since Sept. 11, we have all been preparing for

emergency situations. It's great to see people getting involved."

The origin of the ERT

The Hoboken ERT is a unique program that was born out of tragedy. On Sept.

11, 2001 two seniors, Helen Yao and Michele Martinovich, volunteered to go

down to the emergency triage that was set up at the PATH station. They spent

the day running water and stringing IVs for the medical professionals.

At the time they admitted that they didn't really know what to do or how

they could help, but they knew that they had to do something.

For their civic-minded selflessness, the two received a Youth Star of Life

award from the state's Department of Health.

In the days following the tragedy, the two seniors approached Miele, the

school district's coordinator of service learning, and brainstormed ideas on

how high school students could prepare for any type of emergency. What they

came up with was the idea to form an ERT made up entirely of high school

students, so if disaster ever does strike again, the students and staff at

the city's public schools will know exactly how to respond.

Now, the 15 members of the team stay after school one day a week learning

CPR and advanced first aid techniques. At they end of the year, their

efforts will be rewarded with endorsements for CPR proficiency and First

Response Certification from the American Red Cross. While they are credited

with receiving 50 hours of training, the time they spend is actually much

more, said Miele.

In addition to their basic training, they have been mentored by doctors at

St. Mary Hospital, especially Dr. Anglo Caprio, St. Mary's medical disaster

coordinator.

The students also have received training from Tom Molta and the Hoboken

Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

Just recently, they participated in the TOPOFF 3 (Top Officials 3), the most

comprehensive terrorism response exercise ever conducted in the country.

During the drill, victims of a faux plague were shuttled to their respective

Point of Dispensing (POD) sites, including St. Mary Hospital in Hoboken and

New Jersey City University in Jersey City.

The patients had to be examined, diagnosed, treated, medicated and released

as fast as possible, with the goal of 1,000 per hour receiving proper

medication - in this case, either Cipro or Doxycycline. Members of Hoboken

High School's ERT assisted in admissions, and helped doctors with whatever

they needed.

A future career

The high school ERT can be a good stepping stone for a future in medicine.

Scott Durlester, an EMT for 14 years, said, "It gives the kids a chance to

learn responsibility. The medical field is a good field to go into

nowadays."

Even though the program is relatively new, several students are already

succeeding at the next level.

Leroy Loehwing is currently enrolled at the School of Nursing at Rutgers and

Gabrielle Gomez is pre-med at Montclair State. In this year's class, 18-year

old Ivana Moffitt, who is graduating this year, says she wants to major in

pre-med.

Hands-on learning

The ERT is just one part of the school district's service learning program,

which is designed to give student hands-on interaction with the community.

Miele described service learning as a teaching/learning strategy that

integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to

enrich the learning experience. Another example of a service learning

program in the school district is the 4-H club, which is a national program

of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The students learn about plants and

flowers, and they give area seniors and veterans tours of different blooming

gardens throughout the state.

[Remember585 815]

=D> Outstanding!!!!!

Glad to see some High School kids taking initative to help their community.

If we had that at CHHS, perhaps I would of been a part of SOME after school function!!!

[Eagle24 2]

I think the "right" high school kids are great for VACS...the ones that sign up are usually more dedicated to it than most of the older members(probably because they are not "burned-out" yet)...I think it's a good eye opener for a high school kid to see what a difference he/she can make in people's lives. . .give a bunch of kids in new jersey their own ambulance, I wouldn't be surprised if they are one of the leading responders in their area...the only problem though is that they lack experience, but there is only one real way to fix that-get them on the road seeing pt's

[Guest]

Wow. That sounds great! I wish my high school had that. It's about time that high school students learn a little something and do something after school.