While Andrew Cline fixes his clients’ broken IT projects, he keeps an ear out for more urgent problems.
The owner of Cline Consulting is also a Clinton First Aid & Rescue Squad volunteer. He works from home several days a week, and if someone hurt or sick needs help he can provide, he abandons his computer to assist.
Andrew is helping to fill a tremendous need for weekday volunteers, said CFARS Chief Frank Setnicky. CFARS needs more volunteers, period, he said. But since most people work weekdays, often at jobs that are out of town, finding volunteers who can respond to emergencies during those hours is especially difficult.
“If you’re available during the day, Monday through Friday, even one day a week, this community needs your help,” Chief Setnicky said.
The owner of Cline Consulting is also a Clinton First Aid & Rescue Squad volunteer. He works from home several days a week, and if someone hurt or sick needs help he can provide, he abandons his computer to assist.
Andrew is helping to fill a tremendous need for weekday volunteers, said CFARS Chief Frank Setnicky. CFARS needs more volunteers, period, he said. But since most people work weekdays, often at jobs that are out of town, finding volunteers who can respond to emergencies during those hours is especially difficult.
“If you’re available during the day, Monday through Friday, even one day a week, this community needs your help,” Chief Setnicky said.
Andrew, 42, has felt the call to serve for years. The pull became much stronger, he said, when his kids, Owen, 13, Ethan, 10, and Emma, 8, got old enough to need him just a little less, particularly during weekdays.
Before that, “I typically did a lot of carting kids around to various things, and traveled more frequently to my clients for meetings,” said Andrew, whose wife, Richeal, works for Roche Diagnostics in Branchburg and must frequently travel. “Once they were all in school, I had a big gap of time between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.”
Setnicky hopes that others who have a desire to give back to the community and daytime availability will follow Andrew’s lead. “If your kids are all in school or are grown, if you work nights, if you’re retired, even if you have just one weekday off, please call us,” he said.
As a new volunteer trained in first aid and CPR but still completing his EMT training, Andrew can’t yet respond to every call – he can only ride the ambulance with a full EMT. As flexible as his schedule is, he isn’t always available to respond, either. He has committed to two weekend shifts per month, and responds at other times when he is able.
Cline loves it. “Part of it is the sense of belonging – the rescue squad community is very tight-knit. And I’d be lying if I didn’t say there’s an excitement piece to this whole endeavor,” he said. “Most of all, I enjoy the aspect of helping my neighbors. There’s a sense that you’ve done something, that you’re not just a bystander. That at the end of the day, you actually did something to make someone else’s day better, and there aren’t too many things in life where you can get that sense on a recurring basis.”
Reprinted from "The Lifeline. Your Clinton First Aid & Rescue Connection", Fall 2016
Before that, “I typically did a lot of carting kids around to various things, and traveled more frequently to my clients for meetings,” said Andrew, whose wife, Richeal, works for Roche Diagnostics in Branchburg and must frequently travel. “Once they were all in school, I had a big gap of time between 8 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.”
Setnicky hopes that others who have a desire to give back to the community and daytime availability will follow Andrew’s lead. “If your kids are all in school or are grown, if you work nights, if you’re retired, even if you have just one weekday off, please call us,” he said.
As a new volunteer trained in first aid and CPR but still completing his EMT training, Andrew can’t yet respond to every call – he can only ride the ambulance with a full EMT. As flexible as his schedule is, he isn’t always available to respond, either. He has committed to two weekend shifts per month, and responds at other times when he is able.
Cline loves it. “Part of it is the sense of belonging – the rescue squad community is very tight-knit. And I’d be lying if I didn’t say there’s an excitement piece to this whole endeavor,” he said. “Most of all, I enjoy the aspect of helping my neighbors. There’s a sense that you’ve done something, that you’re not just a bystander. That at the end of the day, you actually did something to make someone else’s day better, and there aren’t too many things in life where you can get that sense on a recurring basis.”
Reprinted from "The Lifeline. Your Clinton First Aid & Rescue Connection", Fall 2016
RSS Feed