When members of SUNY Oswego’s Student Association Volunteer Ambulance Corps (SAVAC) first responded to a call on a “crisp, cold day in January 1972,” they started a tradition that's still going strong. SAVAC is the first student-run ambulance corps in the nation. This distinction is important, say founding members Ed Balaban ’73 and Charlie Flood ’72. Other organizations may claim to be the oldest collegiate corps, but only SAVAC was founded and staffed completely by students.

Balaban and Flood started SAVAC in response to the closing of SUNY Oswego's campus infirmary in 1971. They saw how far their action to fulfill the need of medical services went in April 2018, when they joined SAVAC's 40th anniversary celebration. Along with the founders, it included 150 SAVAC volunteers spanning four decades.

“This corps has plenty of spirit,” said Balaban, “they appreciate what their origins are and how many people unselfishly gave so it could be what it is: special, unique, and ultimately first in the nation.” Meeting with current officers and members from the ’70s to the 2000s, he remarked, “If [Flood and I] do nothing else in this life, you guys are our legacy.”

That legacy fosters a lifelong passion for and commitment to rescue work. Reflecting on decades of influence, Flood says that "[SAVAC is] life-changing, not just life-saving."

The first group of SAVAC members were Red Cross trained first aiders. Now, an average of 20 students each semester become NYS certified EMTs from the course that started in 1996. Initially boasting 100 members, SAVAC now has an average of 80, ranging from social members to volunteers.

References

Reed, M. (2013, January 15). SAVAC celebrates 40th anniversary.

Oswego Alumni Magazine. Retrieved August 21, 2020

from http://magazine.oswego.edu