Our Founder: B.M. Stanton

In 1982, B.M. Stanton, a concerned and dedicated citizen of Virginia Beach, saw an immediate need to support the volunteer efforts of the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad. In an effort to raise awareness and support for this endeavour, he combined his business savvy and profound appreciation for the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad to form what would become known as the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad Foundation.

After forty years, B.M. Stanton’s values and principles remain the driving force of this Foundation whose mission has evolved to provide financial and civic support support to the volunteer rescue squads of Virginia Beach, helping to assure the future of free pre-hospital emergency care provided by community volunteers.

The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization whose assets are bolstered by individual and planned gifts from the community. These gifts fulfill the Foundation’s goals of maintaining and increasing the programs and services we offer to the volunteer rescue squads, which help to secure the future sustainability of the VB Rescue volunteer rescue squad system.

Currently, the Foundation’s Board of Directors oversees more than $16 million in assets. These funds have been raised from the generosity of individual gifts and bequests and through the dedicated efforts of local Foundation volunteers.

In A Letter To Interested Parties,
Dated November 1, 1982, B.M. Stanton Wrote:

“All of us who have lived at the Beach for a number of years have had occasion to learn first hand, or thru family or friends, just what a marvelous service the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad performs for our community. Whether you have an auto accident, household accident, heart attack, or just any need for ambulance service and medical attention…the Rescue Squad is there within minutes, with medical knowledge, equipment and medical supplies, to give aid and comfort…

Rescue Squad volunteers are truly a generous, devoted group of people, dedicated to serving their fellowmen…I am so appreciative and grateful to these wonderful people for their humane service to the community…It is my hope that you, too, share my admiration and respect for the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad and that you will want to raise funds to endow the Squad, so it will have the necessary equipment and supplies, and to assure that the Rescue Squad will remain on a volunteer basis, the same as it has been since the Squad was organized in 1952.”

Support Of Entire Rescue System

While the Foundation was established in 1982 to support one of the ten squads serving the City of Virginia Beach (the Virginia Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad), the Foundation’s mission evolved over the last four decades, and its commitment now extends to the entire volunteer rescue system of Virginia Beach, as exemplified by its financial support of system-wide marketing and public relations campaigns, as well as advocacy and recruitment efforts. Key projects that the Foundation currently funds or has funded include:

Grants To Squads

Volunteer Recruitment & Retention

Public Awareness

Professional Development

Advocacy

Management

The Virginia Beach Rescue Squad Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization operated by a board of directors.

Assets

The Foundation’s Board of Directors oversees more than $16 million in assets. These funds have been raised from the generosity of individual gifts and bequests, and through the dedicated efforts of local Foundation volunteers. The Foundation’s largest donations include contributions from the estate of:

E.V. Williams
Mary Wells
Arthur J. Lillenfield
B.M. Stanton