Squad auction Saturday

The Blytheville Emergency Squad is hosting their annual fundraising action at the Mississippi County Fairgrounds Exhibit Building at Walker Park on Saturday.

The silent auction will be held from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m. and then the live auction will begin at 6 p.m. and continue until everything is sold. During the auction, the squad will also be selling BBQ ribs and Boston butts.

The Blytheville Emergency Squad is an all-volunteer group, operated by the Blytheville CB Radio Club, providing an integral part of the EMS system in Mississippi County.

The squad provides first aid and ambulance support for a wide variety of community events, extrications and ambulance service to motor vehicle accident, as well as land and water search-and-rescue.

The forty-four-member squad includes paramedics, EMTs, nurses and first responders. Most of the individual are trained in the use of extrication equipment and the precautions necessary to protect and care for the victims involved in motor vehicle accidents. The squad also responds to 9-1-1 calls should the need overwhelm the available ambulances provided by Pafford EMS.

In the past year, a variety of challenges were presented to the squad. Some of the responses were routine in nature, but other directly impacted the health of those to which we were providing aid. The routine responses included supporting community events such as: the county fairs, MayFest, the Chili Cook-Off, Gosnell Cotton Festival, the March of Dimes Walk-A-Thon and the Radio-thon for St. Jude. The squad also provided over 2,600 hours in first aid and ambulance support to those in need during these events.

Numerous hours were also spent searching for missing victims on the river and on land.

Many of the searches involved being on the Mississippi River or in the Big Lake waterways after dark. Other emergency responses were to motor vehicle accident requiring extrication and ambulance support. These responses required experienced, trained responders to extricate, treat and transport patients to the hospital. To date this year, the squad has responded to over 173 calls to victims of accidents, illness or crime.

The squad purchased a boat capable of operating in shallow water. We have named it the "Swamp Boat".

It can run in 18-inches of water and it has been equipped with searchlights and radios. The radios in our other response vehicles were upgraded to digital capability to enable us to communicate with area law enforcement, EMS, and Emergency Management.

The side scan equipment we purchased last year has been installed and will give us much better capability during future water searches.

If you would like to reserve order your BBQ today or if you would to like to make a monetary donation or donate an item to sell please call,

(870)-740-2248 or (870)-623-0714.