‘We’ve touched a lot of lives’: Bed-Stuy Volunteer Ambulance Corps prepares to celebrate 37 years of service

In 1988, the year the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Ambulance Corps was founded, locals were regularly forced to wait for half an hour for an ambulance to arrive during a medical emergency.

“Brooklyn in the 80s, it was the middle of the AIDS epidemic, the crack epidemic, and Bed-Stuy residents were not getting the services they needed,” said Amy Dorfman, a lieutenant at BSVAC. “On average, it took the city ambulance services over 30 minutes to respond to a life-threatening emergency in Bed-Stuy … they didn’t want to come and serve our neighborhoods.”

More than three decades later, BSVAC has helped bring ambulance response times down to four minutes or less with an all-volunteer team and four ambulances.

BSVAC has helped bring ambulance response times in Bed-Stuy down to four minutes or less.Photo courtesy of Amy Dorfman/BSVAC

“People know BSVAC, we’ve been around for 37 years, so people when they see the ambulance, they’re surprised we’re still here, we’re still in existence, we still operate,” Dorfman said. “You know, we’ve touched a lot of lives over the years, so usually people are really happy to see us.”

In the 80s, she explained Bed-Stuy was routinely neglected by emergency services — as were many communities of color. Founder James Robinson was moved to do something after his niece passed away waiting for an ambulance that arrived too late.

He started BSVAC alongside another EMS worker, Joe Perez, and a volunteer lawyer, Tasmin Wolf.

At the time, the ambulance service was based out of an abandoned building, Dorfman said, with no running water or electricity. Volunteers responded to emergency calls on foot, or by bicycle – however they could get to the scene.

Now, 37 years later, they’re hoping to add a fifth ambulance to the fleet this summer, Dorfman said, and have more than 100 volunteers who do everything from running operations to driving the ambulance and providing emergency medical care.

BSVAC helps out at community events and offers first aid trainings.Photo courtesy of Amy Dorfman/BSVAC

With the help of the city’s health department, BSVAC has expanded its territory to Crown Heights, Brownsville, and East New York. Sometimes, the org listens in on police scanners and heads to the scene of a medical emergency on their own. At other times, they’re looped in on the FDNY’s system, and are dispatched in lieu of a city ambulance.

BSVAC also serves as standby medical help at community events and hosts CPR and first aid training classes in the neighborhood; and runs youth training programs so local children and teens can prepare for formal EMT training. So far this year, BSVAC has responded to more than 600 emergency calls; and 40 people have graduated from its Emergency Medical responder class.

Every volunteer has a different story, Dorfman said. Many are full-time EMTs who want to support their local community on their off-hours. Others have 9-to-5 jobs totally unrelated to the medical field.

A section of Marcus Garvey Boulevard is co-named for BSVAC founder James Robinson.Photo courtesy of Amy Dorfman/BSVAC

Dorfman herself works at a nonprofit, she said. During the COVID pandemic, she felt she needed a way to support her community and decided to go to EMT school and join up with BSVAC.

“I feel honored to be part of this community. We are a family,” she said, adding that Robinson’s son is now the commanding officer. “This really is a family organization, and I feel honored and lucky to be part of this community.”

On July 12, BSVAC will celebrate its 37th anniversary with a block party at the corner of Greene Avenue and Marcus Garvey Boulevard. There will be games, food, music, a bounce house, and free health screenings — and a 1 p.m. ceremony to honor volunteer first responders.