Berkeley Co. Rescue Squad Receives Grant for New Life Jackets

Berkeley County rescue squad members pose with their new life vests

The Berkeley County Rescue Squad is pleased to announce that it recently received a $2,300 grant from the Home Community Fund.

Home Telecom created this kind and generous donation as a grant-making fund of Coastal Community Foundation to build a permanent charitable resource for selected non-profit programs in the company's service area.

Every year, Berkeley County squad members (all volunteer) respond to approximately 100 emergency calls.  Many of those calls are water-related involving either search or recovery missions.

Thanks to the generous funding by the grant committee, squad members were recently able to replace all of their old life jackets that were more than ten years old and showed obvious signs of wear and tear.

Recently, Berkeley County Rescue Squad Chief Bill Salisbury used the money to locally purchase 20 new auto/manual inflatable life vests that are commonly used with many first responding agencies today.

On the left, rescue squad member and grant writer/webmaster, Nikki Gaskins, holds up one of the old vests which are more than ten years old. On the right, she holds up our much needed new ones.

Formed in 1966, the Berkeley County Rescue Squad is made up of approximately 30 members who respond to emergency calls 24/7.

Because the Berkeley County Rescue Squad operates on a limited budget (less than $55,000 a year) and is in need of updating aging equipment, squad members recently formed a grant committee to explore other sources of revenue. Hence, we are grateful for this recent grant contribution.

We can't say it enough to HOME Telecom and the Coastal Community Foundation....THANK YOU SO MUCH for your assistance. It's much appreciated! 

At our January 7th meeting, squad members tried on the new vests for the first time. Above is video of our assistant chief trying on the vest. He obviously has a sense of humor :-)