New President, Berkshire Preservation,
New Patches, and Heatstroke Safety

Greeting From Our New President

From left to right: Ken Schumacher, newly elected President; COO Kevin Wall; Treasurer John Halbreich (foreground); and outgoing President and newly-elected Vice President Jim Santos.

Friends and neighbors,

I am honored to have been elected as the new President of Southern Berkshire Ambulance Squad, taking over from Jim Santos, who now steps into the Vice President’s chair — which is to say that Jim and I have simply traded seats. After this many years together, it feels less like a transition than a rearrangement of furniture in a room we have both lived in for a very long time.

I should disclose something before we go further. Jim has given this squad fifty-one years. I have given it fifty. Jim likes to remind me of his seniority from time to time, and I fully expect that to be one more thing that won’t ever change. So while the title on this letter says President, I want it understood that I am working alongside someone who has forgotten more about this organization than most people will ever know.

Jim and I were both born and raised in Great Barrington, and we both still live here. The people we respond to are the people we grew up with — our neighbors, our classmates, our friends’ parents and now our friends’ grandchildren. We have been a team for half a century, and we will keep working together.

A great deal about this squad has changed over five decades. One thing has not: the commitment of our leadership, our board, our paramedics, and our emergency medical technicians to your well-being. That is the constant. After all, we have been showing up every single day for fifty years — and we intend to keep doing so.

— Ken Schumacher, President, Southern Berkshire Ambulance Squad

A Thank You to Berkshire Preservation Inc.

Berkshire Preservation Inc.

Southern Berkshire Ambulance Squad is deeply grateful to Berkshire Preservation Inc. for a recent initiative on our behalf that raised $100,000 for the squad. A gift of this size is uncommon for an organization our size, and it arrived through the generosity of people who chose, without being asked, to make it happen.

Our particular thanks go to Carole Owens and her amazing board of directors, whose commitment to this effort made it possible. It is one thing to believe an organization is worth supporting; it is another to do the work of bringing that support into being. They did that, and the squad is the better for it.

What this means in practice is straightforward. Southern Berkshire Ambulance responds to roughly 3,000 calls a year, providing paramedic-level 911 care to Alford, Egremont, Great Barrington, Monterey, Mount Washington, Sheffield, and southern Stockbridge, with advanced life support intercept for New Marlborough, Otis, and Sandisfield. Every dollar raised goes directly toward sustaining that capacity.

To learn more about Berkshire Preservation Inc. and its work, visit preservationinc.org. To everyone who contributed, and to Carole Owens in particular: thank you. We will do our best to be worth it.

Squad Embraces New Patches

The original patch design, our most recent patch, and our new patch.

Our goal was simple: pay homage to the original patch, which referenced Monument Mountain. This place is not only a focal point for the entire region, but also a place where we’ve performed countless rescues.

The squad settled on a new design that embraces Berkshire themes while removing the “V” from the acronym. While the squad was a volunteer organization for its first 50 years, it transitioned to a professional EMT and paramedic staff over a decade ago. It was time for an update.

Donor Pages on Our New Website

Thanks so much to the 2,000+ donors over the last three years who recognize the importance of emergency medical services and how critical SBAS is to our community. We’ve created donor recognition pages that list all of them.

You can review the 2024, 2025, and year-to-date 2026 donors by clicking the links.

Overdose Prevention: Keep a Kit Handy & Save a Life

Get your free overdose prevention kits at Railroad Street Youth Project in Great Barrington.

An opioid overdose is survivable. Naloxone, the medication at the center of these kits, reverses it within two to five minutes, and it cannot hurt someone who turns out not to be overdosing. Each kit is three inches by eight — small enough for a backpack or a glove box. The spray needs no needle and no training to use.

Members of the public can pick up a kit directly from the Railroad Street Youth Project in Great Barrington. Southern Berkshire Ambulance provides kits through our crews — we leave them with individuals and families on calls where our medics judge that a kit could make the difference.

If you think someone is overdosing, call 911 first. Signs are unresponsiveness, slow or absent breathing, gurgling or snoring sounds, and lips or fingertips turning blue or gray. Give the naloxone, and stay. Massachusetts’ Good Samaritan law protects people who call for help during an overdose from being charged with drug possession.

Protecting Yourself from Heatstroke

Know the signs of heat exhaustion and heatstroke.

Heat is the deadliest form of weather in the United States — more lethal in an average year than hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods combined. It is also the most preventable. Every summer our crews respond to calls in the Southern Berkshires where a hot afternoon in the yard, on a trail, or in an upstairs room without air conditioning has become an emergency.

There are two stages, and the distinction matters. Heat exhaustion is the warning shot: heavy sweating, cool and clammy skin, muscle cramps, headache, dizziness, nausea, weakness, and a fast, weak pulse. The person is uncomfortable but still thinking clearly. Heatstroke is the emergency, and its defining sign is a change in mental status — confusion, slurred speech, combativeness, or loss of consciousness. The skin becomes hot and may be either dry or sweaty. Core temperature is often above 104°F.

Prevention is mostly a matter of planning the day around the heat rather than through it. Drink water steadily before you feel thirsty, and shift heavy outdoor work to early morning or evening. Wear light, loose, light-colored clothing and take breaks in shade or air conditioning. Check on elderly neighbors — older adults lose the ability to regulate body temperature efficiently and may not feel thirsty even when dangerously dehydrated.

If you suspect heatstroke, call 911 first, then start cooling. Do not drive the person to the hospital yourself and do not wait to see if they improve — brain and organ damage accumulate with every minute the core temperature stays high, and our paramedics can begin advanced treatment on scene and en route.

Symptoms and prevention of heatstroke.