From left: Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service Chief Nick Bryant and Emergency Medical Technician Curtis Bramhall; Randy Miller and Mike Elwell, of Newcastle Chrysler Dodge Jeep; and CLC Ambulance Service Campaign Chair Alden McFarland and Deputy Service Chief Mark Doe. The agency is seeking donations to support the purchase of two new ambulances.
In the fall of 2019, when trustees, staff, and volunteers at Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service launched a capital campaign to fund two new ambulances to replace aging and increasingly unreliable vehicles, they couldn’t have predicted that the fundraising effort would be suspended six months later due to the demands of COVID-19 preparation and staff training. While they successfully raised more than half of the $446,000 needed before the campaign was put on hiatus, the agency’s strong commitment to serving the people of Central Lincoln County came first and the funds were borrowed to purchase the ambulances this spring.
“To date we’ve raised more than $263,000 from individuals and area organizations,” said campaign Chair and CLC Ambulance Service Trustee Alden McFarland, “and we hope to complete this effort by raising the remaining $183,000 by end of the year.”
CLC Ambulance Service Chief Nick Bryant explained the situation faced by the agency. “To assure our ability to deliver the highest quality of care for our community and to meet the new demands for increased safety guidelines, we made a decision to borrow a portion of the funding to purchase the new ambulances,” he said. “Today we are serving our communities with two new, state-of-the-art ambulances, and we need to finish our fundraising efforts to cover their cost.”
The campaign owes its early success to generous individual and organizational support.
“I can’t think of a more vital and important effort to our local communities than a well-equipped ambulance service,” said Randy Miller, of Newcastle Chrysler Dodge Jeep. An early campaign supporter, Miller helped provide the truck chassis for the new vehicles. “If you live in Alna, Bremen, Bristol, Damariscotta, Edgecomb, Jefferson, Newcastle, Nobleboro, or South Bristol, I guarantee that you (or someone you know and love) will directly benefit from these vehicles. I also want to thank the individuals who have already made a gift and who have made a positive difference in this effort,” he added.
With a commitment to direct every penny raised in support of the new ambulances, the CLC Ambulance Service is looking to the communities it serves to help finish the campaign.
“We are asking individuals, businesses, and organizations in Central Lincoln County to please consider supporting this campaign,” McFarland said. “While there are many important and valuable charitable causes in our region, we believe that this campaign meets one of the most fundamental needs in any community: quick and reliable access to emergency medical services, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
For more information or to make a contribution, contact Nick Bryant at 563-1414.
