Butte Valley Ambulance Service

Press Story

Ambulance fund grows

By JAMIE GENTNER
Daily News Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 11:10 AM CDT

 

Contact Information

 

We want to hear from you!  Please contact us at:

 

Telephone

 

530-397-2105

530-397-3015

 

FAX

 

530-397-2914

      

Physical address

 

400 South Oregon Street

Dorris, CA 96023

 

Postal address

 

PO Box 9 Dorris CA 96023

 

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 Last modified: 08/03/07

DORRIS – About 400 people gathered at Dorris City Hall on Saturday, Aug. 18, to bid on over 50 items in support of the Butte Valley Ambulance Service.

Residents from Northern California and Southern Oregon attended the second annual fundraiser organized by Ted Swain, a Dorris resident and California Highway Patrol sergeant with the Dorris/Tulelake resident post.

 

The day’s events included an 11 a.m. lunch, vendors, a barbecue dinner, a drawing will be held for several prizes – including a Browning automatic rifle, a Benelli-Max 4 Super Nove 12 gauge, a Marlin .17 HMR and a big screen TV – and silent and live auctions.

Proceeds from the event went toward the Butte Valley Ambulance Building and Vehicle Replacement Fund.

The Ambulance Service, a community non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization, was without an ambulance around the July 4 weekend last year when both emergency vehicles broke down.

“I’m in the line of work that you’ve got to have an ambulance,” Swain said. “If

we would have needed one in a hurry, we would have waited for one from Merrill, Oregon, or Mount Shasta, which would mean waiting an extra 20 or 30 minutes. It's not good to have that added delay”

 

Last year’s fundraising efforts raised $50,000. That money, coupled with grant money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), helped purchase two new ambulances. But with 1,200 square miles to cover, another ambulance is needed. And the old building that houses the Ambulance Service is too small to house the new vehicles.

Thus, Swain and several other volunteers set out to collect about $75,000 between the fundraiser and a matching-fund grant that is being applied for.

Saturday’s efforts – and the past five weeks’ work – brought in about $51,000.

Bidders got their hands on items such as blocks of hay, animal feed, jewelry, tickets to a Nascar Busch series event, vacation packages, gift baskets and more as Jim McGilvery of Bonanza, Ore. asked, “Two hundred dollars – would you be the two?”

Swain was pleased with the results of the fundraiser.

“It went really well. The participation from the local people was great,” he said. “I have to give a special thanks to Gordon Trucking, Pacific Power, Jim McGilvery, the Dorris Lions Club and the ambulance crew who helped me out a lot. There was a lot of community involvement and spirit. Also, I have to give a big ‘thank you’ to my wife and kids, who haven’t had their husband or Papa around much the past few weeks.”

But he said it would be optimal to be able to come up with another $10,000 to $25,000.

“At least the end is in sight. Our community will be taken care of for a long time with the ambulance and building this money will help buy,” Swain said. “But the way it sits now, if we take what we made this year and the little that was left over from last year, the Ambulance Service will be down to zero dollars. We would like them to have a little bit of a cushion so they don’t have to keep doing this every year.”

For more information on the Butte Valley Ambulance Service, or to find out how to help, call Swain at 397-2700 or the Ambulance Service at 397-2105.

“We appreciate everybody’s support,” Swain said. “The hearts of most people have been generous, and we appreciate that.”

Daily News Photo/Jamie Gentner - Jim McGilvery of McGilvery auctions, out of Bonanza, Ore., calls for a bid during the live auction portion of the Butte Valley Ambulance Service fundraiser held Saturday, Aug. 18 in Dorris.

Daily News Photo/Jamie Gentner - Austin “Bobo” Swain, one of the youngest bidders at Saturday’s fundraiser, flashes his dad, organizer Ted Swain, a smile after helping him draw a raffle ticket during the event.