Rumors rarely are accurate nor are they our friend. We live in a small community, and with social media and cocktail parties, people like to talk. Unfortunately, the rumors regarding our beloved group, your Skidaway Island First Responders, no longer responding to emergencies similar to how we have in the past are true.

This has been one of the most difficult and heartbreaking times for all of your neighbors who have volunteered as First Responders for decades. We are true believers that somehow, some way, we will find our way back to serving this community we adore.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to sign the petition that Lori Redding started. There are nearly 10,000 people on Skidaway Island, and we implore each of you to sign it, too, in hopes that Chatham County will see the community’s strong desire to have SIFR dispatched and reconsider their current position of not directly dispatching our volunteers. Thank you, also, to the team of people who are working diligently not only on our behalf as first responders, but for ALL of you, too. The Landings Association’s Security Team is testing a Mass Notification System specifically for SIFR, and they are working with County officials to receive timely notifications when emergencies occur in our community. We will share more information about this plan as more details become available. As the saying goes, “It takes a village,” and we are especially grateful for ours. We certainly have seen what we can do if we work together for the greater good of our wonderful community.

The dedicated paramedics are stretched thin without the assistance of SIFR but are doing their best to navigate this new process. Please rest assured they haven’t stopped working to protect and serve our community.

We can’t tell you what our future holds, but we will always consider our service to Skidaway Island as the greatest honor we have ever had. Our need to protect is still as strong as it always has been, and WE ARE STILL WORKING on a solution to ensure your First Responders are present at all emergency calls on our island just as we always have been. Again, thank you for the outpouring of support, love, and encouragement we’ve all received from so many of you.

As Randy Pausch so eloquently said, “The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.”       

We will keep trying to knock the walls down and get back to saving lives.

The Skidaway Island First Responders

Rumors rarely are accurate nor are they our friend. We live in a small community, and with social media and cocktail parties, people like to talk. Unfortunately, the rumors regarding our beloved group, your Skidaway Island First Responders, no longer responding to emergencies similar to how we have in the past are true.

This has been one of the most difficult and heartbreaking times for all of your neighbors who have volunteered as First Responders for decades. We are true believers that somehow, some way, we will find our way back to serving this community we adore.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to sign the petition that Lori Redding started. There are nearly 10,000 people on Skidaway Island, and we implore each of you to sign it, too, in hopes that Chatham County will see the community’s strong desire to have SIFR dispatched and reconsider their current position of not directly dispatching our volunteers. Thank you, also, to the team of people who are working diligently not only on our behalf as first responders, but for ALL of you, too. The Landings Association’s Security Team is testing a Mass Notification System specifically for SIFR, and they are working with County officials to receive timely notifications when emergencies occur in our community. We will share more information about this plan as more details become available. As the saying goes, “It takes a village,” and we are especially grateful for ours. We certainly have seen what we can do if we work together for the greater good of our wonderful community.

The dedicated paramedics are stretched thin without the assistance of SIFR but are doing their best to navigate this new process. Please rest assured they haven’t stopped working to protect and serve our community.

We can’t tell you what our future holds, but we will always consider our service to Skidaway Island as the greatest honor we have ever had. Our need to protect is still as strong as it always has been, and WE ARE STILL WORKING on a solution to ensure your First Responders are present at all emergency calls on our island just as we always have been. Again, thank you for the outpouring of support, love, and encouragement we’ve all received from so many of you.

As Randy Pausch so eloquently said, “The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.”       

We will keep trying to knock the walls down and get back to saving lives.

The Skidaway Island First Responders