Clifton Park Halfmoon Emergency Corps Celebrates 75 Years

The busiest EMS agency in Saratoga County is celebrating 75 years of service to the community.

The Clifton Park Halfmoon Emergency Corps celebrated it’s 75th anniversary in a small ceremony conducted on June 22. The ceremony featured a ribbon cutting and presentation of awards by several elected officials. 

The agency covers three municipalities within Saratoga County — Clifton Park, Halfmoon and Mechanicville, and runs around 8,600 calls a year accounting for 25% of all EMS calls in the County, according to Executive Director Keith Collins.

While the organization is planning a large gala in September but worked with the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce to hold a smaller ceremony closer to when the organization was formally incorporated. 

During the June 22 ceremony, the organization was presented with the Empire Award by New York State Senator James Tedisco (R-44) who represents all the area covered by the Emergency Corps. 

“You are the best insurance company in the world, cost wise, service wise,” Tedisco said. “You make the difference in people not being injured seriously or losing their life. When they go to bed here in our community, they understand when there’s an emergency, whether it’s in the vehicle, whether they’re home, whether they’ve been in the backyard, you are going to be there to service them in the most important thing that they need, and that is protecting their family and them individually.” 

Similar sentiments were expressed by Halfmoon Supervisor Kevin Tollisen Clifton Park Supervisor Philip Barrett. Barrett specifically highlighted the organization’s work during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020.

“This organization didn’t step back, they stepped forward and made sure that Clifton Park, Halfmoon, and beyond were taken care of professionally,” Barrett said. “You did everything necessary to make sure that you could continue to provide the great coverage.”

While the organization may be the busiest EMS agency in the county, its origins are humbler. Collins said that five community members started Clifton Park Halfmoon Emergency Corps to formalize patient transport to local hospitals. While some fire local fire districts had “rescue squads” to handle patient care, the organization was unique in its independent focus on emergency care.

 The organization was formally incorporated on June 19, 1951 and has been evolving ever since. Collins, who first joined in 1991 as a volunteer EMT, said that when he joined the agency, they ran around 1000 calls a year and was comprised of mostly volunteers. However, when Clifton Park began a large population increase in the late 90s, the organization began hiring more paid personnel and expanding it’s facilities, including their current headquarters which was built in 1997. 

Today the organization runs around 8,600 calls a year and comprises 88 paid staff members.

One of the things Collins highlighted as driving their success is the cooperation with local leaders and the outreach done by the organization into the local community.

“We invested long ago in a program to untraditional for EMS to get out and do outreach, so we do proceeds, we do defensive driving, we do an EpiPen familiarization course, Safe City, and of course CPR,” Collins said. “We are ingrained in this community, and we want to stay here. We invest in them because they invest in us.”