THE HISTORY OF MANORVILLE COMMUNITY AMBULANCE
In early 1974, seventeen determined residents decided to form a volunteer ambulance company in Manorville.
It became a reality on April 30, 1974 with a donated Caddy ambulance. There was no ambulance building. The rigs were parked at members’ homes. Meetings were held at members’ homes, public halls and restaurants.
There was no tax money. The operating budget of the ambulance depended solely on donations through fundraisers, door to door soliciting and raffles. When the money ran out, the members bought gas for the rig out of their own pockets. Two members actually took out second mortgages on their homes to help MCA.
MCA ended up in temporary quarters on Lane Blue Spruce Maids Road (across from the Maples). When that building was no longer viable, the rig went back to the President’s house.
Finally the Manorville Ambulance Tax District was formed and with that came the HQ building on South Street which was dedicated in July 1985. Before the building was finished, a temporary trailer was placed on the property, but ended up being torched.
So we came from extremely humble beginnings in 1974 with a donated ambulance, no HQ but DEDICATED members whose first priority was to help people. They weren’t in it for what they could get out of it, but for unselfish reasons.
On July 21, 2011 HQ was demolished and a new “green” building was constructed on the same site. We moved in on January 26, 2013 with official “ribbon cutting” on March 2, 2013.