When Newtown resident Roger Connor, Jr, returned from service in the US Navy in 2002, he wanted to find a way to give back to the community; and when resident Tom Hanlon retired from working as a union carpenter, he found himself in the same boat.

But instead of pursuing opportunities with low demand and occasional involvement, both opted to get the necessary training to join the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps (NVAC) - a unique calling that provides among the most critical of local services - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Mr Connor is the corps' current chief, having been named to that position earlier this year.

In his case, NVAC was a familiar organization. His grandfather and his dad were both connected to the agency as a trustee, and his father was also active in the corps during the mid-1970s.

NVAC is overseen, and its finances are managed by, Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Association (NVAA), a separate group of directors, which also comprises volunteers from the community.

When Chief Connor joined NVAC in 2002, he was following in the footsteps of many other young people who spend part of their time responding to emergency calls. He spent the balance of his first four years as a volunteer attending Western Connecticut State University, where he received a degree in theater arts in 2006.

During that time, and since, Chief Connor also stepped up intermittently as a member of the NVAC's "E-Board," a group of organization leaders that helped manage the many duties and functions of the service and its volunteers.

In recognition of his efforts, Chief Connor received the Danbury Hospital's Christopher Blackwell Award for Dedication to Service in 2010. Since then he has remained very active while pursuing a graduate degree at Southern Connecticut State University in sports entertainment management, and working full-time as a police and emergency dispatcher in neighboring Monroe.

"I was working managing a production company in New York City that put on more than 380 shows a year, and then the economy tanked," he said. "That brought me back to Newtown. But way before that, when I got out of the Navy, where I served on the USS Bataan amphibious assault ship, I went to Danbury Hospital and got my EMT certification. And I came back and started training here."

A Volunteer Service

Although the NVAC continues to respond to an escalating number of calls each year, they are one of the few ambulance corps left in Connecticut that has been able to sustain itself without the necessity of hiring paid EMTs. The association and the town, however, contribute the expense of keeping a paramedic onsite in town on an annual basis.

Mr Hanlon, who is frequently among the top volunteer responders and is a leading responder so far this year, said he has great confidence that the current and growing number of engaged volunteers will be able to carry NVAC's all-volunteer tradition forward for the time being.

"I foresee a day when the 911 calls will overwhelm our capacity to keep this purely volunteer," Mr Hanlon said. "But we're still doing okay."

NVAC is one of the most active volunteer EMS providers in the western Connecticut region, responding to more than 2,200 calls and utilizing 30,000 volunteer hours of member service per year.

"We're holding our own," Chief Connor concurred. "We've stepped up our recruitment and offering of training, we just interviewed five new prospects, all of whom are already experienced EMTs, and we have plans to be visible for both awareness and recruiting purposes at many of the public events in town."

Chief Connor has also re-engaged outreach to Newtown's five volunteer fire companies, as well as the new leadership at Newtown Police Department. While the chief's position is elected for one-year terms, most of the past chiefs have either served multiple years over time, or in succession.

"It takes a year doing that job before you can begin to make any changes," Mr Hanlon said.

"And I spent two years as secretary/treasurer and a total of six years on the Executive Board, so I had a lot of experience as I stepped into the role of chief," Chief Connor said.

Both of the NVAC members acknowledged that it is much harder to attract and keep younger members on a year-round basis, and that today, most of the top responders, like Mr Hanlon, are retirees who have joined the corps.

"A lot of the younger people want to come in and get this kind of experience because they want to go on to other medical fields," Chief Connor said. "Our  corps has produced one EMT who went on to graduate from med school, one who is currently in med school, several nurses, several physician assistants, and a number of others who pursued careers in the medical or support fields."

"I had a trainee who went on to become a genetic researcher at Boehringer Ingelheim," Mr Hanlon added. "He wanted to become a cardiac surgeon, and they liked him so much they put him through any college of his choosing, and provided him a stipend so he didn't have to work during summer breaks. I would see him once in a while and would always remind him that he did good."

Reflecting on his history with NVAC, Mr Hanlon affirmed that the roster of colleagues has always numbered around 50, with about half of those members engaging frequently and the balance helping to fill in the schedules and responding to calls as demands fluctuate.

"Very few of the people are still active from back when I joined back around 1990," Mr Hanlon said. "And back then, the majority of the volunteers were women."

Technology And Training

Back in the day, the technology of life support on an ambulance, and the training to use it, was sparse by comparison. Today, NVAC's four "buses" are outfitted with all the technology that is available for use in the field and front lines of emergency medical response.

"We've also got power lift stretchers that help mitigate the types of injuries that can be career-killers for EMTs," Chief Connor said, adding that the corps' newest ambulance, and the second of two to be added to the fleet, is going through the design phase.

"We're looking at adding a slightly smaller ambulance," Chief Connor said. "I think having the option, with all the small or long narrow driveways we have in town, it will be a good addition."

In terms of further community engagement, the corps is in the early stages of looking at holding "CPR Saturdays" training sessions for the general public, to help orient more residents to the life-saving practice. At the same time, NVAC volunteers are also looking for the public's assistance in getting their volunteers and ambulances to the scene of their calls.

"It's still kind of shocking to me that unless you have a big fire engine going along with you, drivers don't seem to want to pull over when the ambulance is approaching," Mr Hanlon said. He and Chief Connor remind residents to pull over and stop, no matter from which direction an ambulance is approaching.

Anyone who calls for an ambulance should also be prepared to tell responders any medications or medical treatments the victim is receiving, if available - and if possible, have someone outside to wave down the ambulance as it is approaching.

Residents are also surprised to learn that there are many volunteer opportunities that do not involve putting in and maintaining EMT training, or ever seeing or treating patients. For more information on how to support or participate in the NVAC, follow the agency on Facebook, engage members at a local public event, or visit newtown-ambulance.org.