By Paul Silverfarb
Sentinel Editor
The Greenwich Emergency Medical Service, Inc. (GEMS) kicked off its 30th year providing Greenwich residents with emergency ambulance services in grand fashion on Feb. 25.
Gabriele’s Italian Steakhouse was filled to capacity with people celebrating GEMS 30th year in town, and also helping raise money for the valuable nonprofit.
“It was a great atmosphere,” said John Raben, chairman of the GEMS board. “The noise in the room was at a level where you can tell that everyone was having a good time. There was a lot of cause in the room. A lot of people in the room knew each other and so many of them have connections to GEMS. There were fun games and we were pretty successful in the amount of money we raised. It goes a long way towards the cost of a new ambulance.”
In addition to Raben and the life savers of GEMS, Police Chief Jim Heavey, Greenwich Hospital President Norman Roth, Greenwich Director of Health Caroline Baisley, Parks and Recreation Director Joe Siciliano and many others were in attendance to help the group celebrate in style.
Also attending the event were people that literally had their lives saves by GEMS and it was easy to see the connection between GEMS and the Greenwich community.
“It’s tremendously gratifying and it’s a privilege for me to serve as chairman,” Raben said. “GEMS is an exceptional organization and for any volunteer, like myself, to be a part of such a wonderful organization is an honor and is gratifying. To see people that literally were able to have a second birthday is an amazing experience. GEMS has responded to over 150,000 calls in over 30 years. For someone like me, as chairman, to see people that we actually have saved, makes everything worthwhile. All the time that we devote to GEMS, it makes the experience very personally gratifying.”
GEMS Dinner Committee Chair Rod Saggese said that it was a lot of hard work and dedication by everybody to get the event off the ground, but it was certainly a labor of love.
“It’s great to have the community support something like GEMS,” Saggese said. “My background is an attorney, so it’s not in my wheelhouse of skill sets. It was a little outside my comfort zone, but I had a great team to work with. There were six or seven people that really did a great job getting over 100 people out and getting significant donations while having a good time.
“GEMS hasn’t done something like this before, as most of the fund raising comes from private requests and donations,” Saggese added. “So to have this celebration that also functions as a fundraiser is a little bit of a new ground for me and for GEMS in general.”
The event had a four-course meal, with wines donated by Val’s Putnam Wines & Liquors. In addition, 10 local bakeries donated cakes and there was a photo booth and a game of “Heads or Tails,” where the winner won a ring donated by Manfredi Jewels.
In total, the event raised $65,000 for GEMS.
“I am very proud of the event,” Saggese said. “It’s a credit to our community and it’s a credit to what GEMS means to people. The money we raised goes to saving people’s lives and people in our community’s lives. I don’t think you could be more proud than being able to contribute to something like that.”
For board member Craig Jones, the best part of the evening was getting the word out on GEMS.
“Most of the town assumes that GEMS is just like the fire department or the police department and that it’s funded through the town—and it’s not,” said Jones. “Without the support of the town, GEMS can’t operate. They can’t buy the new ambulances. They can’t keep up the level of service that it currently has.”
GEMS is an independent 501c3 organization and isn’t a part of the town of Greenwich government, such as the police and fire departments. GEMS raises all the money needed for capital expenditures and that is one of the main reasons to establish GEMS as an independent organization.
“We wanted to do private fundraising,” Raben said. “In over 30 years we have raised over $8 million. We paid for all our ambulances and replace an ambulance each year. We have provided for all our support vehicles and all of the equipment that goes into the ambulances.”
A fully equipped ambulance runs GEMS $360,614, which is 125 percent more than it was just a decade ago.
Raben also said it’s important that Greenwichites recognize that the funding GEMS gets from the town covers only part of the operating expenses.
“Those payments from the town are really payments for services rendered under the contract, so it’s critical that GEMS is successful in raising the money,” Raben said. “We need to maintain state-of-the-art technology in the ambulances, as they are basically emergency rooms on wheels. It’s critical to the people in the town that we are able to fund state-of-the-art, modern equipment.”
Jones believes that when looking at the records of the GEMS response times, it’s far better than any other GEMS department in the country.
“It’s really that much better,” Jones said. “The ambulance has so much equipment in it. By the time you get to the hospital, they know what is going on because they could hook up EKG’s on the ambulance, which is relayed to the hospital. When you get to other hospitals, you would get there, the doctors would take you in and then they will figure out what is wrong with you. The difference with GEMS is that during those five minutes that you’re driving to the hospital, they have figured it out. You’re coming out the ambulance and they are ready to go with whatever the correct measures are.”
