On Thursday night, Israel’s Independence Day, United Hatzalah will inaugurate 70 ambucycles to celebrate Israel’s 70th birthday. Each ambucycle will be given the number of one of the years of Israel’s history beginning from 1948 and continuing until 2018.

Donors from around the world who have expressed interest in dedicating an ambucycle have been invited to participate in the special project and choose a year that is special to them from medical organizations as well as other rescue organizations who have also begun using similar vehicles once they saw how effective they are. By deploying the vehicles across the country and utilizing its network of close to 5,000 volunteer first responders, United Hatzalah has reduced emergency response times to less than three minutes on a national average. In major cities where ambucycles are more common, the time it takes for a qualified EMT or paramedic to arrive at the scene of an emergency is even lower and stands at an average of 90 seconds.

Founder and President of United Hatzalah Eli Beer. “What we have done with our model of combining ambucycles with our volunteer responders, is created a social innovation that some have called a “flash mob of lifesaving”. People thought that achieving a 90 second response time was impossible. Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and other densely populated cities have proven that even in the most horrific traffic, the 90-second threshold can become a reality. All you need is to have fully equipped emergency responders, ambucycles, and enough people who want to help others make the dream of saving lives in 90 seconds, a reality.”

Among the 70 new ambucycles to be dedicated on Yom HaAtzmaut will be nine ambucycles that were donated in loving memory of the victims of the Parkland school massacre that took place at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14th. Community members of Palm Beach Synagogue in Palm Beach Florida, raised the money to donate the nine ambucycles in an effort to leave a legacy of lifesaving for the children and teachers killed in the horrific attack. In the words of Rabbi Moshe Scheiner who leads the Palm Beach Synagogue congregation: “The Jewish response to tragedy is to beautify and sanctify life. That is the lesson, which all of the congregants who participated in the donation of the ambucycles understood very clearly, and one which we as Jews need to share with the world.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem/Photo Credit: United Hatzalah)