Need to help others drives Peters to volunteer his time

WAUSA – Murray Peters has a passion for helping people.

The 63-year-old has been a member of the Wausa Rescue Squad since 1991, along with David Carlson, Gregory Conn and Bill Thierolf.

All four of them were honored with plaques in 2021 for having served on the rescue squad for 30 years.

“It really goes by fast,” Peters said, laughing about how much time has passed since they first joined the team.

The Wausa man explained why he has volunteered to be a part of his hometown rescue squad for more than three decades.

“Somebody’s got to do it,” Peters said. “There was a big need when we first joined because they said, ‘Well, somebody’s got to step up and carry it on.’ Somebody’s got to do it in these small towns.

“You’d want it for your parents,” he said. “My mother went in the ambulance. If I ever need the ambulance myself, I hope somebody comes. The group we have is pretty good.”

The rescue squad currently has 19 members and two ambulances that serve an area of 117 square miles, including Wausa, a Knox County community of nearly 600 people.

“I enjoy the fellowship and I enjoy helping people whenever I can,” Peters said.

His regular job as an electrician for Johnson Electric in rural Bloomfield – where he has worked since September of last year – makes it difficult for him to respond to emergency calls.

“We work in Verdigre, we work in Wausa,” Peters said. “We’re kind of all over. Sometimes I don’t get too good of cellphone service.”

He used to respond to more rescue calls during the 39 years he worked for his father, Albur, at Peters’ Hardware and Furniture in downtown Wausa.

Peters’ father died in 2015 and he sold the store in 2016. After working for the family business, Peters was employed as an electrician by K/V Electric near Wausa for about four years.

Although he works out of town most of the time these days, he does his best to respond to emergency calls whenever he is available, including at night and on weekends.

“I was in town a lot, so I went on a lot of calls,” Peters said. “Now I don’t have that opportunity to go on as many calls.”

He noted he always encourages people to volunteer and serve on the rescue squad.

“We’re always recruiting somebody if they even think they might want to do it,” Peters said. “It’s a big commitment nowadays.”

He gave the example of how there are many more hours of training and continuing education for potential rescue squad members than when he first joined the team 31 years ago.

“You go to a lot of continuing education classes, and you have refresher classes and CPR renewal and all the different components in the ambulance,” Peters said.

“It’s just a good group of people to be with and keep your skills brushed up as best as you can,” he said.

He noted many changes have occurred over time for rescue squad members, such as amount of information they have to know has increased.

“Back when we did it, you weren’t really supposed to diagnose anything,” Peters said. “Now it’s more detailed. Their grasp of all the different ways to do things is a lot more concentrated.

“Back years ago, it was basically you load them up and find out what’s the matter and get them to the hospital,” he said. “It’s just a broader scope of what you’ve got to know.”

He noted the rescue squad and the Wausa Volunteer Fire Department are one entity, meaning he serves the community both as an emergency medical technician and a firefighter.

Peters has been a member of the fire department since 1984, as have Carlson, Conn and Thierolf.

“We all joined the fire department and all became EMTs at the same time,” Peters said. “We’re the old dogs, I guess.”

Peters is part of a multi-generational family of Wausa firefighters. Both his father and paternal grandfather, Wilhelm, were longtime members of the department.

As for the rescue squad, he noted its future looks good and credited its captain, Jill Claussen, and its training officer, Claussen’s daughter Laura Hauger, for being good instructors of emergency medical services.

“Younger people are stepping up and really doing well,” Peters said.

He emphasized volunteer fire departments and rescue squads are vital to the survival of rural communities like Wausa.

“If you didn’t have it, I don’t think people would want to live in a small town,” Peters said.