MAKING ‘HEADLIGHT’ HEADLINES IN…
1982
A look at interesting copy that grabbed our attention “back in the day.”
ambulance service marks 10th year
It was Sept. 21 in 1971 that an organizational meeting was held to form the Tracy Ambulance Service. The era had ended when funeral homes could provide ambulance service, and it was up to the community to staff the ambulance with its own volunteers.
John Kosse presided over this first meeting until the election of officers, which named Omer Eischens as president. Junior Johnson as vice president, Kosse as secretary and Ken Sletten as treasurer. The group decided immediately to sell shares to residents throughout the area in an effort to secure enough funds to get the service off the groimd. A total of $6,000 was raised and by January of 1972, the volunteers were ready to take over the job, after purchasing the 1960 Cadillac formerly owned by the Almlie Funeral Home.
The first group of attendants included several Tracy residents who are still volunteers for the ambulance service. They are John Almlie, Homer Dobson, Eischens, Kosse, Eugene Longstrom and Doris Lessman. Others who were attendants racing down the highway at high speeds knowing that the fate of a patient, not to mention possibly a doctor, nurse and a fellow attendant, depends upon you keeping the ambulance between the ditches.
“That’s dangerous,”he said. “It’s white knuckles all the way.” Then why do people volunteer to become Tracy Ambulance attendants — to give up their days, nights and weekends from time to time to be, on call for the good of the community?
“Your biggest reward is the fact that you’ve helped somebody who needed help,” says Kosse.
