By:Jonann Brady
Surprising Facts
Joining one group cuts in half your odds of dying next year.
Ten minutes of commuting reduces social capital by 10%.
Want to get involved?
Malverne Neighborhood Watch
Contact the Malverne Police Department at 599-3141 or safety@malvernepolice.com
Or come to a meeting on the third Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. at Village Hall
Malverne Ambulance Corps
To become a member of the MVAC, call 599-1686 or e-mail MALVAC@aol.com.
Malverne Fire Department
30 Broadway, 599-8281
To find out about other volunteer organizations in Malverne, check out www.licentral.com/malverne/htm/community.html
In his 2000 book, Bowling Alone, Harvard professor James Putnam writes that American-s social capital -- the connections within communities and families -- has plummeted over the past quarter century. People are more disconnected than ever, he says: they belong to fewer organizations, know fewer neighbors, meet with friends less frequently and even socialize with their families less often. He takes the title of his book from the fact that while more Americans are bowling than ever before, they are not bowling in leagues.
Joe Lanzetta, a 29-year resident of Malverne, knows the feeling first-hand. Two years ago, Lanzetta and a small group of residents formed a Malverne Neighborhood Watch, an all-volunteer organization to act as the eyes and ears of the community and help keep neighborhoods safe. Neighborhood Watch members walk the streets in their identifiable hats and shirts, looking out for suspicious or criminal activity or just helping neighbors in need.
After Sept. 11, 2001, Malverne resident and former New York City police detective Steven McDonald, who was paralyzed by a bullet on duty, suggested the idea of a Neighborhood Watch to Malverne Police Chief Glen Jacobsen. Seven people came to a kick-off meeting, and the group worked to get the word out. some 20 people joined the group, and membership would jump but then fall again, said Lanzetta, with about 10 core people currently carrying the group.
It-s so damn hard, said Lanzetta of trying to jumpstart a volunteer organization and keep it going. So many times I thought I was going to quit.
In Bowling Alone, Putnam details how changes in work, family structure, age, suburban life, television, computers and women-s roles have all contributed to declining social capital. Lanzetta understands that times have changed and most families now have both adults working, sometimes more than one job. People are busy -- they-re very stressed, he said. This isn-t a cheap town to live in.
But Lanzetta says he-s not throwing in the towel so easily, and the Neighborhood Watch is planning another fund-raising and recruitment push. Outside of the satisfaction of helping to keep the quiet village safe, Lanzetta says he has had the opportunity to meet new friends. [The group] gives people a social network, a support system, he said. Before the group started, I didn-t know any of them. They-re a fantastic bunch, so committed.
Ambulance Corps at 'critical point'
The Malverne Volunteer Ambulance Corps was founded in 1968, after a young village girl was injured and waited over 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive from the Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow. The ambulance corps had dozens of members in its heyday, but membership has fallen precipitously, with only about 18 trained, active volunteers today taking 35 to 40 calls a month, said the president of the corps, David Walsh.
A lot of members that began 20 or 30 years ago ... can-t do the physical aspect of the job anymore, and we don-t have the young people coming forward at age 18, said Walsh, who is 51 and the only certified paramedic in the corps.
Walsh says that at one time, members used to fight to get on the duty roster, but now it-s a struggle to fill it. While the corps is hanging on, it is at a critical point. Some villages have been forced to close down their ambulance corps because of declining membership, and though Walsh doesn-t see that happening in Malverne any time soon, he and other village officials say losing the ambulance corps would be disastrous. Residents would have to depend on overburdened Nassau County police ambulances in an emergency, meaning more time and a whopping ambulance bill.
Joining the ambulance corps offers volunteers hands-on skills and the adrenaline rush of saving lives, but becoming certified as an Emergency Medical Technician takes a great deal of time and commitment -- things that today-s overworked suburbanites seem to have very little of.
To become an EMT, volunteers must take a six-month course of three-hour classes, two nights a week, in which they learn everything from basic first aid and CPR to how to safely transport patients. The classes cost volunteers nothing, as the state picks up the tab. To become certified as a critical-care EMT or paramedic is even more intensive.
Still, Walsh is hopeful. In the past two years, the ambulance corps has attracted three volunteers between 18 and 22, and the corps is very woman-friendly -- housewives kept the corps staffed during the day in the 1970s, and there are five women EMTs in the corps now.
I don-t understand why a lot more people don-t do it, said Walsh. I wouldn-t say it-s fun, but the satisfaction you get out of it you can-t put into words.
Volunteering in the blood
One Malverne volunteer group that seems to have dodged the bullet of declining membership is the fire department, due in large part to the heightened profile of firefighting after the Sept. 11 attacks.
We-re kind of lucky, said Chief Richard Fusco. We brought in 16 new members after 9/11.
Like becoming an EMT, becoming a firefighter takes intensive, on-going training and a time commitment, but the department relies on a strong junior department, a family legacy of firefighting that is passed down from generation to generation and the camaraderie inherent of the firehouse.
The Malverne Fire Department currently boasts 35 active volunteers, with an average age of 28, and 86 members in all, including lifetime members.
For many, firefighting is a family affair. Capt. Dan Morgan, who works for the Long Island Rail Road, joined the department 17 years ago, when he was 18. His father, Dan, was also a member; his brother, Kevin, a CPA, has been a member for 15 years; and his brother-in-law, Kenny Rung, is also a member. They have no doubt that some of their children will also join the department some day.
It-s in the blood, said Morgan.
And that may be the key to rebuilding volunteerism, says Malverne Police Chief Glen Jacobsen, who is a lifelong village resident and has volunteered for nearly every organization in town. Unless you do it, you just can-t understand, said Jacobsen. The satisfaction is better than money. I wouldn-t be where I am today if I didn-t decide to take a first-aid course with the ambulance corps years ago.
