Princeton Packet
18 February 1981

First aiders celebrate banner season in 1980

Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad has held its annual meeting, electing officers and presenting service awards. Highlights of the evening included the honoring of one volunteer for establishing an all-time emergency-service- call record, and a local merchant for conducting a unique individual fund drive for the squad.

Officers elected and installed for 1981 were: Joe Deering. president; Mark Freda, vice president; Jack Seeley. Jr., secretary, and, Toni Nini, treasurer.

Line officers elected and installed were; Ed Obert, captain; Wayne Smith and Mark Freda, lieutenants; and, Eric Karch, head driver.

Also, elected and installed were Mike Bonotto as member at large. Chuck Gentilin as head trustee, and Ed Obert as chaplain.

Delegates to the New Jersey First Aid Council arc Eric Karch, Mark Freda, and David Steward. Alternates are Ed Obert, Alex Versfeld and Sarge Pasternick.

Mike Bonotto received a tribute from the more than 100 attendees at the meeting with a standing ovation when it was announced that he had set a new all-time record for individual service in 1980 by making more than 450 emergency runs, the most in the history of the organization, which began in 1939.

During the past year, the squad responded to 1,099 emergency calls, traveling 12,077 miles with its five rigs, and putting in 4,350 manhours.

An ovation was also given to Alan G. Frank, president, Langrock-Princeton, for his unique financial support to the squad. He wrote a letter to more than
1,000 Princetonians in which he said in part: “For the first time in our 85-year history, we arc permitting our private mailing list to be used in the solicitation of funds for a vital volunteer community service, namely the Princeton First Aid & Rcsuce Squad. We arc taking this means of asking you to contribute to the maintenance of this life-saving service. Any contribution … will be used for operational costs of the Rescue Squad. To show our sincerity in support of this vital need … we. as an organization, pledge 5 percent of all funds so raised as our contribution.”

A check for S2,500 was presented to the squad by the Ladies Auxiliary.
First year of service awards were presented to: Diana K. Flury, Nancy Weaver, Audrey Chen, and Bruce Cobb.

Five-year service honors went to: Wayne Smith.

John S. Seeley, Jr., was given an award for 10 years of service.

In reviewing the year 1980, it was noted in the annual report that the township police have started to do the squad’s emergency dispatching: that each squad member is equipped with a two-way radio at home and a mobile radio for their cars, and that a full crew “sleeps-in” every night at the squad headquarters.

It further reported that in May of 1980 a new phase in emergency care was started with the addition of two full-time paid paramedics to the squad’s staff with funding obtained from the township and the borough through the efforts of squad members, the joint committee, the Medical Center at Princeton, and concerned people within the community.