PAGE 12, WEDNESDAY., AUGUST 15, 1979, WHITBY FREE PRESS Whitby Newsmakers By MICHAEL KNELL These guys save lives Between them, they have spent 40 years driving an ambulance, they have prob- ably saved more lives than anyone can remember. Bill Cocker and Derek Pearce have put the knowl- edge and skill of 40 years experience to good use as the new owners and operators of Whitby's ambulance service. Pearce and Cocker have purchased the W.C. Town Funeral Home Limited Ambulance Service after working for the same servi~ce for the past il years. Both of these men have been involved in the para- medical field since the 1950's when they worked for the Lancashire County Ambuw lance Service in England. Cocker first became inter- ested in the field as a young conscript in the Royal Army Medical Corps. (All young men in England had to spend two years in the army under the National Service Program until the idea was scraped about 10 Saving Highest Savings Account Rate Ever! years.ago.) Cocker started off as an operating room téchnician in the head îijur Q'nit of the Wheatley Ofl Military Hospital in English Midlands Pearce's military career may sound more exciting to some people. He was in the Middle East as a member of the Royal Military Police at the time of open hostilities between Isreal and Egypt and the Anglo-French invasion of the canal zone. They came to Canada 12 years a goJwith their wives and families, and have been citizens for the past four years. (Cocker and Pearce are related by marriage. They met when Pearce was courting Cocker's sister, Elizabeth, to whom he has been married now for 27 years.) Both are family men. Pearce has a daughter, Lynn 25. Cocker has been married to Dorothy for 23 years and has a son, Derek, 20, and a daughter Julie, 17. When they first came to Canada, both men worked for the Whitby Psychiatric Hospital as orderlies for a year before joining the Whitby Town Ambulance Service in 1968. Both men are highly ciual- ified for the job as the operators of the ambulance service. Both, hold the advanced certificate.in firs' aid from the St. JÃ"hn's Ambulance Brigade, both hold the Royal Life Saving Certificate and both are qualified casualty care attendants. Their experiences on the ambulances (as they refer to it) are wide and varied. "So many things have hap- pened that you could write a book," cocker says. However, most of the out- standing ones may not be fit for publication, Pearce says. Most people may not realize it but ittakes a lot of work to get the license to operate an ambulance service. Cocker says that it took six weeks just to prepare the brief to present to the Ontario Hospital Services Commision. In this brief the potential ambulance service owner must tell the commision everything about. the business. Everything about yourself, the area in which you plan to operate, how many people you will employ; and at what salary and what their qualifications' are for the job, how much money the service will need to operate By the time you have written the brief, you know everything there Is to know about running an ambulance service, Cocker says. "Anyone can own an ambulance service, but you çan't operate without the license the commision issues," Cocker says. Whitby Ambulance Service, the new name of the operation will employ 13 men on a full-time basis and Cocker and Pearce hope to -add a couple of part-time in the spring. The service is moving from it's present location in the W.C. Town Funeral Home and Chapel to a new facility at 611 B Palace St. at the corner of Beech St. W. They hope to be moved in and operating at the new building by September 1. Aside from their regular duties, the men who man the ambulances are community involved. They go to the schools, and show the children the ambulances and their various functions as a life saving tool. "We try to prevent child- ren 'from being afraid of ambulances," Cocker says. They also hold dances to 'support various charities. The next one will be on October 6 and will be in support of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. There is obviously more to running an ambulance service than meets the eye. Cocker apd Pearce say that they would like to assure Whitby residents that their service will be as efficient as it always has been. "We. appreciate the chance that Jack (Town) gave us to operate the business," Cocker says. It appears that Whitby's ambulance service is in good hands and that a wish of good luck is in order. Good luck, guys! Search for the stars Amateur and professional Canadian performing artists, 18 years of age and over, are invited to apply for an audition in the 1979 "du Maurier Search for Stars". The nationwide cornpetition is open to both popular and classical performers in the field of music, dance, theatre, and variety enter- tainment. Live auditions will take place this fall in nine Cana- dian cities from coast-to- coast, at the conclusion of which 18 semi-finalists will be selected and awarded $2,000 du Maurier Council bursaries. Each of the 18 will also be featured in one of three hour-long CBC Net- work television specials to be aired during the Spring of 1980. Six winners will be chosen from among the semi-finalists, to receive fur- ther bursaries of $5,000 each, and an additional appear- ance on the fourth "Search for Stars" prime-time TV special. Interested performing artists must apply for an audition by not later than September 15th, 1979. Appli- cation forms can be obtained by writing to: du Maurier Search for Stars Post Office Box 27 180 Dundas Street, West Toronto, Ontario M5G 1Z6