In his 40 years behind the wheel of ambulances, Douglas Dance has driven all sorts of vehicles: Internationals, Bedfords, a prototype Ford... but the Chevrolet that now gleams within its Roxburgh shelter is reserved for the skills of others.
Mr Dance may have finished driving ambulances in 1999 but his role as a prime mover within Roxburgh's wider community continues.
The chairman of the Roxburgh area committee of the Order of St John has been a member of St John for 54 years, having joined in 1957 at the age of 16, following the completion of the Roxburgh hydro development.
"The hydro project had Ministry of Works ambulances which covered the district and serviced the Roxburgh hospital, which was built specifically because of the dam, but the district was then going to be without an ambulance.
"A public meeting was called in 1957 and the district got behind it because they needed an ambulance service. There was no point in having a hospital without one." Two years later, in December 1959, the township's first ambulance, an International, rolled into town.
Mr Dance remembers it well; he got to drive it.
Chairman of the Roxburgh area committee for more than three decades, the 70-year-old has been instrumental in organising support - both financially and in terms of volunteers - for the region's ambulance service.
"You've got to keep your volunteers happy. Getting them in the door is one thing... retention is our biggest challenge."
There are eight volunteer ambulance officers in Roxburgh, the youngest of whom is "about 40" and the oldest in her mid-50s, Mr Dance says.
"It's hard for the volunteers. They often come from families where both parents are working.
"Ambulances are supposed to be double-crewed but sometimes we just don't have the people."
It costs money to train volunteers, too. To educate a volunteer to the point they can walk away with a national diploma in ambulance practice requires about $2000.
"Sometimes you get a person halfway through their diploma who pulls out. Well, you've spent about $1500 on them. You also have to buy them their kit and uniform, which costs about $1000," Mr Dance explains, adding that other expenses, such as ambulances and consumables (petrol, tyres etc) are covered by the wider St John organisation.
St John receives 80% of its annual funding from the Government (it has contracts with the Ministry of Health and ACC) but is left with a shortfall of about $13 million to $14 million per year, Alena Lynch, South Island region communications and promotions co-ordinator, says.
"If you break that down to Otago, it is around $750,000 per year."
Hence the reason for the annual St John appeal, which this year runs from June 20 to 26. Nationally, last year's appeal raised $1.1 million, St John making up the remainder of the shortfall through grants and its commercial activities, which include first-aid courses and medical alarms.
Equally important, Ms Lynch points out, are those who provide support for ambulance operations in towns throughout New Zealand.
The ratio of volunteer ambulance officers to paid ambulance officers is two paid to three volunteers in both Otago and New Zealand.
There are 39 ambulances in Otago and a total of 601 in New Zealand.
"That support is often financial, a local fundraising component that helps provide things like uniforms for ambulance officers, training, station infrastructure, that kind of thing.
"It depends on the need of the town. The main focus is the ambulance service within each town."
A key tenet of this backing is the St John Supporter Scheme, which requires households to pay $55 per year ($35 if it applies to an individual); the subscription means that should a member of that household require an ambulance they will not need to pay the $67 part-charge for the use of the service.
"Because of the shortfall in funding, one of the ways we try to find money is through a patient part-charge," Ms Lynch explains.
"If you were to get an ambulance you'd get a bill from us for $67; that's part of the contract we have with the Ministry of Health."
In Roxburgh, 92% of the households on the area committee's database have signed up to the supporter scheme; that equates to an annual sum of about $14,000, which helps ensure the survival of the ambulance service in an area that stretches from Moa Flat to Shingle Creek.
Although the supporter scheme is voluntary, Mr Dance and his fellow committee members do a mail-out to remind those in the area of the "importance" of contributing to the ambulance service.
"If people don't pay we send out a reminder. That has been the key to our success; it's amazing how many trickle in after you've sent out a reminder ... that's probably the biggest reason for our membership.
"We've have been known to go through the electoral roll, because a lot of people come and go; they might not even know we have an ambulance."
Although the importance of an ambulance service to a rural town and its surrounding countryside is obvious, Mr Dance evokes an image with which many will be familiar: "Quite often, I'll go for a drive and I might notice a new power pole and think, 'oh, I remember that'. I can recall five people having been killed on a 1km stretch of road over the years, as well as others elsewhere."
• The appeal
The Order of St John appeal week runs from June 20-26.
