The South Orange Rescue Squad celebrated a half-century of emergency medical and rescue service to communities and neighborhoods throughout Orange County last weekend.

2022 actually marks the service’s 51st anniversary, but last year’s 50th anniversary celebration with the public was postponed due to the pandemic.

“It’s hard to believe that we’ve been around for 51 years,” Fred Stipe, chair of the SORS Board of Directors, said on 97.9 The Hill last week. “In Orange County in the late ’60s, there was no 9-1-1 system as we know it. There was no rescue squad that served the southern part of the county… let’s say there was an accident. The people that would take you to the hospital were the folks that worked at the local funeral home.”

Saturday’s celebration included multiple speakers, including Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood, Carrboro Police Chief Chris Atack and Carrboro Town Council member Susan Romaine. In addition, SORS held an open house and featured a fleet of service vehicles at the celebration, such as its ambulances, boats and trucks. Squad members were on hand for safety demonstrations and free blood pressure checks.

“Years ago, volunteer EMS programs was kind of the norm,” said SORS chief Matthew Mauzy. “But unfortunately, volunteer programs, and volunteerism in general, has just been dwindling nationwide. We are a pretty unique program in that we can take someone fresh out of an EMT class, and then with some training, be able to put them in situations in which they’re responding to real-world emergency 9-1-1 calls. Doing that as a volunteer builds a very strong sense of camaraderie.”

That camaraderie and connection brought back several South Orange Rescue Squad alumni to Saturday’s open house, which Stipe said hasn’t happened since the squad’s 40th anniversary reunion in 2011.

“When you start looking at the job descriptions of what our alumni are doing, it is really amazing,” he said. “They’re doctors, they’re nurses, they’re PAs, they’re heads of emergency management organizations across the country, we have some that work for the federal government… and they all got their start volunteering for us.”

Check out a photo gallery of the event below!

Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood (Image via Orange County Sheriff’s Office)
Carrboro police chief Chris Atack (left) (Image via Orange County Sheriff’s Office)
Carrboro town council member Susan Romaine (Image via Orange County Sheriff’s Office)
Image via Orange County Sheriff’s Office
Image via Orange County Sheriff’s Office
Some of the service’s original volunteers from 1971 (Image via Orange County Sheriff’s Office)

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