Members from Chicopee and VCare take a picture with a $5,000 donation for electronic search and rescue equipment.
Reminder Publishing photo by Tyler Garnet
CHICOPEE — On Sept. 19, VCare Medical Group CEO Sergey Sokolovsky donated $5,000 to Chicopee to fund essential electronic search and rescue membership and equipment from the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office.
Mayor John Vieau thanked Communications and Special Projects Director Chloe Soto for her efforts with securing the funds and expressed his gratitude for the donation.
He said, “We are incredibly fortunate to have businesses like VCare Medical Group and community advocates like Mr. Sokolovsky, Chloe Soto, Fire Chief Dan Stamborski and Police Chief Patrick Major working together to protect our residents. This equipment is a game-changer in safeguarding some of our most vulnerable community members, and we are deeply thankful for this contribution that will positively impact many Chicopee families.”
The state-of-the-art equipment will aid authorities in finding family members with dementia, Alzheimer’s or mental disabilities who are prone to wandering and may also be nonverbal.
The ESAR equipment, equipped with radio frequency band technology, will allow law enforcement to quickly locate and safely return individuals who may elope and become lost, providing invaluable peace of mind for families in the community.
The donation will allow Chicopee to purchase its own equipment when it comes to using radio frequency. It’s a part of Project Lifesaver, a program initiated in 2021 by Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi.
The Hampden County Sheriff’s Triad program helps individuals with cognitive conditions who are at risk of wandering.
The program includes a bracelet that a person wears that can be tracked through radio frequency to help locate the person who may be missing. It is watch sized and can be worn on the wrist or ankle.
Vieau said, “Having this technology, they’re actually designer wristbands that are probably in the ballpark of around $5 and we’re providing them for free.”
Lt. Greg Moss from the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department was there to talk about the technology and how it has benefited communities and residents so far.
“Just the past few months we’ve had probably five to eight people that we’ve found in a community that have wandered away from their homes, so it is a lifesaving device. We offer it free. Every two months we change the batteries in it, and it develops relationship between all of us in the families and the people. People when they go on vacation, we reach out to other agencies across the country, so they know they have someone in the area that is on project lifesaver. It’s really a nationwide program.
Chicopee Adult Day Health Center Director Amy Stewart and Holyoke VCare Programs Director Nicole Maisonet joined Mayor Vieau to present the donation check.
Stewart talked on behalf on herself and the Adult Day Health Center about the partnership and great opportunity for this technology to be used on people at the center.
She said, “We are a new business here in Chicopee and I want to say to the mayor’s office and Chloe reaching out to us and coming to us and making us feel welcome in the city of Chicopee has been wonderful and heartfelt. Our participants need these types of things. We are an adult day health center taking care of the most compromised folks in our community and we welcome everybody. There are a lot of people who will really need these services. I know it is big for Chicopee to get the $5,000 but it is also so important and heartfelt for us to be able to share this opportunity to make sure our community is safe.”
Stamborski also thanked Soto for finding an idea for funding and explained how working with other agencies helps the community at large.
He said, “Collaboration is what this is all about. This is going to enable us to have one more tool in our toolbox to track somebody and find them and hopefully find them in a healthy condition not injured. It’s not just for elderly people suffering from maybe dementia but a lot of young children that have different ailments that they are not capable for communicating and take off from their parents. We have a lot of teams between PD, Fire Department, Sheriff’s Department and we always get together and solve problems.”
Vieau said Chicopee will be implementing training right away and this is just the beginning for the program.
“I’m sure that we’re going to expand on that in the very near future knowing that we have this seed money, $5,000, to purchase our own equipment and then potentially purchasing the actually bracelets,” Vieau said, “This is not a wonderful occasion for not just the people of Chicopee but also for Western Massachusetts. That’s a direct result of a collaboration and collaborations work in the private sector, public sector and they work best when we work together. We made Chicopee a little safer and not just Chicopee but Western Massachusetts and Pioneer Valley because of the generosity of VCare.”
