Allendale April 17, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 5 Ambulance corps to celebrate 75 years of service by John Koster The Allendale Volunteer Ambulance Corps is now celebrating 75 years of service to the borough – an occasion that will be officially marked at a May 4 Beefsteak Dinner at the Guardian Angel Church auditorium. The Allendale Ambulance Corps was launcehd when the first ambulance, a 1926 REO, was delivered to the borough on June 10, 1937. Dr. Frederick R. Kanning of Hackensack Hospital arranged the donation for the sum of $1, bringing a long discussion about establishing a borough ambulance corps to fruition. The borough’s Public Safety Committee called a meeting looking for recruits to handle the ambulance and carry out rescues and transportation in Allendale and some of the neighboring towns. On June 30, the group elected Carl Wehner as president, Nelson White as vice president, Henry Kahse as secretary, and Paul O’Connor as first captain of the new corps. The corps was one of the first in northwest Bergen County and carried out missions in Franklin Lakes, Ho-Ho-Kus, Ramsey, Saddle River, Upper Saddle River, and Waldwick, and covered part of Route 17 north of Route 4. Other towns gradually developed their own ambulance corps. Volunteers, including members of the existing Allendale Volunteer Fire Department, donated one night a week for organized drills and another on stand-by and Captain O’Connor and William Strangfeld, an American Red Cross instructor, taught the volunteers first aid. The first call brought out the ambulance to transport eight victims of an automobile accident to Good Samaritan Hospital in nearby Suffern, New York. There were 20 calls in the new corps’ first year. The number of calls suggested that a newer ambulance would be needed and card parties and other activities, as well as a souvenir booklet with paid ads from local merchants, began to raise funds for what would (continued on page 16) The corps’ first ambulance, a 1926 REO. Captain Paul O’Connor