COVENTRY – The Coventry Emergency Squad, an all volunteer organization committed to helping others, is getting help of its own through a federal grant that was announced this week.
On Monday, the Coventry Emergency Squad was awarded $143,925 in federal funding by the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFG) for the purchase of a new ambulance.
According to Kyle Wearne, Squad Captain and COO of the Coventry Emergency Squad, funds received will supplement money the organization already has saved for a new ambulance. Final costs of a new apparatus ranges from $160,000 to $170,000, he said.
“With this grant we will be able to upgrade our number one piece of equipment, our ambulance,” Wearne said in a press statement. “With this upgrade we will get to continue our quest to provide the best possible pre-hospital care with the least amount of interrupted service.”
In a phone interview, Wearne explained the squad has only one ambulance – a model the Coventry Emergency Squad bought new in 1999.
“It’s just worn out now,” he said, citing approximately 250 calls received by the Coventry Emergency Squad per year, most of which are mutual aid.
The Coventry Emergency Squad was formed in 2010 after the ambulance service was detached from the Coventry Fire Department. Now without financial support from the township, the squad relies solely on billing for revenue.
