Welcome everyone 
Let's take a trip down memory lane......

The year was 1972. Do you remember the Munich Olympics? The exictement of watching Mark Spitz winning a record 7 gold medals in a single Olympics or the tragic killing of the Israeli athletes. The song of the year was, “You've Got a Friend” by James Taylor. The Dallas Cowboy's beat the Miami Dolphins to win Superbowl VI 24-3, and the Oakland A's beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 to win the World Series. The President was Richard Nixon, the vice president was Spiro Agnew and soon the headlines would be filled with “Watergate” news. M*A*S*H premiered on CBS, and the last moon landing, Apollo 17, would be returning to earth this year. We were introduced to the first Pay cable network – HBO and to electronic mail. The cost of a first-class stamp was 8 cents, and the median household income was $9,697. A lot of this seems unbelievable, ancient history to some of you. There was no such thing as 911, Emergency Management, Homeland Security, or EMS. Today we almost take it for granted that all we have to do is call 911 and quickly the police, fire department or an ambulance will be there.

Here in Bellevue Gallagher Funeral Home handled getting medical emergencies to the Bellevue Hospital. The “load & go” method was used to get patients to the hospital but as the state started mandating updated training, many funeral homes were getting out, Gallagher's included. In late 1971 Bob Ernst and a committee wanted to continue medical transportation in town, and on New Years Eve, 1971 the Bellevue Ambulance Service was established. The service started with 46 members who were trained in basic first aid and CPR; 17 of these members stayed on the service for 10 or more years. Here is a list of some “firsts” of the ambulance service.

The First:

• First meeting was Jan. 15, 1972
• First ambulance was a hearse that was purchased from Gallagher Funeral Home
• First ambulance building was the fire station, then it moved to Riverview in the old Honkamp Krueger building, then over to Veach's Diesel building, and finally into the current location on 12th street in Sept. 2004
• First female member was Judy Ernst
• First lifetime female member was Vickie Woods with 13 years.
• Officers were: President: Bob Ernst, V-President: Sam Patterson, Secretary: Max Reed
• Emergency calls were first dispatched by the hospital, then located by the power plant, and currently we're dispatched from the Law Center in Maquoketa
• The longest active member is Max Reed with 49 years & still going, the next longest: member was Virgil Nemmers with 34 years.

What began as a “load & go” service quickly grew into a Basic Life Support service and has evolved to a Advanced Life Support service. Members have gone from providing basic first aid & CPR to the highly advanced skills of Paramedics. We've grown from one used hearse to two state-of-the-art ambulances. We currently have 6 Paramedics, 17 EMT's, and 1 EMR for a total of 24 members.

From these humble beginnings the service has seen many members come & go, we've had to say some hard good-byes to some, helped each other through thick and thin, but through it all, everyone who has been a member or the spouse of a member knows, it takes a special person to enjoy doing this!!