For more than 40 years, the Stokes Outdoor Experience Program, or "Stokes" as it is commonly known, has marked the rite of passage for 6th graders starting their first year at Summit’s Lawton C. Johnson Middle School.
For the past four years, two EMTs from the Summit Volunteer First Aid Squad have traveled with an ambulance to provide medical coverage for the event. Those 2 volunteers have been Linda Wolf and Greg Vartan.
After serving as a Squad volunteer for 12 years, Linda Wolf moved with her family to Virginia in 2013 and last year relocated again to Georgia. Despite the distance, she continues to return for the Stokes weekend.
Greg Vartan was a Stokes counselor as well as a junior member of the First Aid Squad while in high school, and continued to serve as an adult squad member while in college. For the previous 3 years, Greg traveled from Lycoming College to join Linda on the Stokes weekend. Now a graduate of that college, Greg has returned to Summit full-time and continues to serve as an EMS volunteer.
Greg and Linda came in to the Squad’s new headquarters to prepare an ambulance for the trip and departed for Camp Fairview Lake Friday morning. As in past years, they spent the entire weekend at Camp Fairview Lake with the students, staff, and counselors.
While the Stokes weekends are usually uneventful for the EMS volunteers, with the occasional bumps and scrapes, this year the crew did transport a patient to Newton Medical Center.
Linda and Greg exemplify the dedication of volunteers that are the backbone of the First Aid Squad.
The all volunteer First Aid Squad is always looking for new members to join its ranks. All needed training, uniforms and equipment is provided. For information, please call 908-277-9479, or click HERE.