Emergency responders get help from Amish youth
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ST. IGNATIUS – The Mission Valley Ambulance volunteers usually receive calls from people needing help. Instead, they received a call offering help.
“We received a call from the Amish community wanting to make a donation,” Emergency Care Provider Gwen Couture said. “We weren’t expecting as much as we got.”
The Mission Valley Amish Youth Group donated a check for $12,008, which was 50 percent of the proceeds from an auction they held earlier this month.
“Having those community members pull together to make this donation, that is huge,” she said. “We really appreciate it.”
She explained that half of the money is going towards a cot – the kind with wheels and mechanisms that lock into the ambulance.
“It’s how we transport people,” she said. “It latches into the ambulance, which is why it costs so much. We are setting aside the rest of the money help buy a much needed new ambulance.”
Emergency Care Provider Christa Umphrey said the emergency service does bill insurance companies when they transport individuals to the hospital, but that money is used to cover the basics.
“We do well enough to cover expenses like tires on the ambulance,” she said. “But if something wears out, we don’t have enough to replace it. If we need a $100,000 ambulance or a $6,000 cot, we don’t have it. This donation was a big help.”
The Amish youth group started the fundraising auction last year to raise money for a children’s home in El Salvador. This year, they wanted to donate locally.
“We chose to give to the ambulance service because they are doing a great thing for this community and we wanted to help,” group organizer Ed Beachy said.
The group sent the rest of the money from the auction to an organization in Ohio called Christian Aid Ministries.
“They use the money to print Bibles and get them distributed all over the world including countries that have a hard time getting them in,” he said. “They also send food parcels to different countries in need.”
Plans for another fundraising auction are in the works.
“We are not sure yet how we want to do it next year, but we do want to do it again,” Beachy said. “The bottom line is that the Lord has blessed us, so we want to give back.”
