Howell First Aid Squad's History Part of its Present

Twice a month when the Howell First Aid Squad holds membership meetings one fo the first people to arrive is John Menscher. 

Back in 1957 Menscher and a group of other residents founded the squad that has since grown to include 75 active members and a full fleet of vehicles that serve not only Howell but neighboring towns and help at the county level as well.

It is the commitment of the members that President John Zicha makes the squad a special group of volunteers in Howell. "It's the family atmosphere we have," he said. "We have members that go away for long periods of time and then come back. We have members who live nowhere around here and like to come back and give input."

Whether it is to ride on one of the rigs or just talk about events affecting the squad Zicha said members are always welcomed back and they are always looking for new ones to join. 

In just over half a century the squd has gone through many changes but has always been located at their Kent Road facility. When the WaWa was built next door the company donated part of its property to allow the squad to expand and build it's current headquarters. "In the early 2000's we needed to have another facility because of the amount of ambulances we had," he said. 

Zicha said after some initial discussions of building a substation budget issues in the town made the expansion the most feasible option. The old building now houses other rigs the squad uses and is also used as a hall that can be rented out to members of the community. 

Last year the squad handled 2127 calls including 243 motor vehicle accidents and other general illnesses.

Even located right off of Route 9 Zicha said the highway traffic is not generally a problem with transporting patients. The Howell First Aid Squad regularly takes people to not only Kimball Medical Center in nearby Lakewood but also CentraState in Freehold and Jersey Shore in Neptune. "The hardest one to get to in the middle of the afternoon is Lakewood," he said. "The easiest is CentraState or Jersey Shore. That's basically trouble free."

For those people looking for a way to help the community Zicha said new members are always encouraged to join. The basic requirements for members are 7 hours a week on a duty crew and responding to 15 calls a month. "We need people that can ride during the daytime and people that can ride over night," he said. 

Zicha also serves as a dispatcher with the Howell Police Department and said members of the squad are in fields like law enforcement, insurance and education among others. "We have people on the squad that have been very wealthy that just want to help the community on the side and people that scrape every dime they can but they still want to help out the community."

Along with the Howell First Aid Squad the town is also served by the Farmingdale-Howell First Aid Squad and the Ramtown First Aid Squad. Zicha said all three work well together to respond to calls across the township. "With the amount of calls we have and people's careers and everything it's hard to get out for every single call, but we do the best we can."

For even the most experienced members Zicha said there will always be calls that will take some time to get over, but he said they work together in difficult situations. "The worst thing you can do is block them out," he said of the difficult calls. After a recent call he helped one of the newest members work through their feelings. "You want to make sure you're aware that if it bothers you the best thing you can do is talk about it. The worst thing you can do if you go on a call is to keep it bottled up and not talk about it."

In his time on the squad Zicha said he has seen a lot of difficult situations but has also seen some great ones. "The main thing I love doing more than anything else is I've delivered two babies and it was the most amazing thing I've experienced in my life," he said. "Usually you're there for CPR calls or somebody passes on, and you're never there when something good happens and that's something good."

To learn more about the squad check out their Facebook page or their website.