By John Estridge
Volunteer: “a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task.”
The definition for the noun “volunteer” does not adequately describe Jim Hodapp.
There should be a different word for volunteer for people like Jim, because he took volunteering to a new level.
Jim drove for Brookville EMS-2 for 20 years almost until his death in 2018. According to his wife, Margie Hodapp, Jim wished he had started volunteering 20 years before he began driving for EMS.
“He absolutely loved it,” Margie said.
And in those 20 years on EMS, Jim put down a remarkable record. He drove more than 200 runs per year in multiple years.
Think about that.
He is a volunteer, and he makes an average of four runs per week for the entire year and did it in multiple years. He ran during heavy snows, ice storms, middle of the nights, weekends and holidays.
While many people ate Thanksgiving dinner and relaxed, Jim’s Thanksgiving meal might get cold because he would be called to someone’s home or to a terrible accident to take someone else to the emergency room.
On average, a run will take between two and two-and-a-half hours to complete. Those on EMS, especially the driver, usually have to report to the squad room, drive to wherever the patient is. The patient must be cared for, carried to the ambulance and then driven to a hospital. And in most of Franklin County, hospitals are around 30 miles away. Then, there is the trip back to the squad room and finally back to home.
At four runs per week times 2.5 hours per run, equals 10 hours per week, at least and to extrapolate that further, that is more than 500 hours per year, about 25, 24-hour days per year in a volunteer capacity.
Margie said Jim loved to make the runs.
“He wanted to help others,” Margie said. “He liked doing for other people. He felt like he was making a difference.”
Margie got him into EMS. Margie worked at Val’s. One of her coworkers, Brenda Davidson, was on EMS. Brenda talked Margie into volunteering and then Margie and Brenda talked Jim into taking the plunge also.
“The two of us drug Jim into it,” Margie said.
That was the old days before GPS. However, Jim possessed a photographic memory, according to Margie. His GPS was already invented, because it was in his head. He could remember individual runs that happened 10 years ago. During those pre-GPS days, people on runs would call Jim at home and ask him how to get to an address.
“Sometimes they would call at 3 or 4 in the morning and ask where a road was,” Margie said. “And Jim always knew.”
There’s a family story where Jim’s parents moved from a farm near New Haven to a farm off Farm Hill Road. Jim was 4. He had been from his old farm to the new farm once. Then, after that one trip, he rode with his two uncles from the old farm to the new farm, and was able to tell his uncles each turn to take.
When the bad winter weather hit, Jim would often stay at the squad room, not taking a chance on a trip from his home to the squad room taking too much time. Margie said the snow and ice were so bad one time after driving down the interstate to Batesville, they had to walk a patient across an overpass to the waiting Margaret Mary Hospital ambulance.
There was a period where he and Margie would run all the holidays and Jim would call in to offer services anytime he found out EMS-2 was out of service. That was because he could not stand the EMS being out of service.
It takes a special kind of person to work on EMS as those volunteers see so much tragedy and despair. Several runs were very poignant for Jim and some he never got over. The way Jim coped with the bad that occurred was caring and training his dogs. He ran foxhounds and coonhounds. He also cared for rabbits.
“That’s what he did to handle the emotional end,” Margie said.
Terminal cancer finally put a halt to his EMS driving days. He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer on January 20, 2018. His last run was the second week of March of that year. And the reason he had to quit then, was because of his immune system was compromised. His oncologist was afraid Jim would catch something from one of the patients, and Jim’s body would not be able to fight it off.
“He really hated stopping,” Margie said. “He did it under protest.”
In the Memorial Day parade that year, Jim was asked to ride in the ambulance, and he did.
“They will never know what that meant to him,” Margie said. “He was delighted he got to ride the parade route with them. He rode with a grin on his face from beginning to end. That meant a lot to him.”
His earthly end came on June 19, 2018. He was 79.
Franklin County EMS purchased a picnic table and placed it at Brookville Town Park. A small plaque with Jim’s name on it is attached to the table.
“The Hodapp family appreciates the recognition of the faithful service Jim gave for almost 20 years to the EMS and the devotion he felt for the Brookville community and the people who live here,” Margie said.
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