This Ambulance Service Is Well-Schooled in the Basics

--Broken bones and heart attacks are nothing new to some high school students in Darien, Conn., where the only ambulance service is operated by teen-age volunteers. Explorer Post 53 is made up of about 50 teen-agers who respond to about 860 calls a year, helping about 8,000 people. Each teen is on duty at least twice a month. “Their compassion is real. When they kneel down next to someone and say, ‘I’m here to help you,’ they mean it,” said John Doble, who set up the post in 1970. Doble said he created the post, which is affiliated with the Boy Scouts Explorer program, because “the drug thing was rearing its ugly head,” and he wanted his three children to learn responsibility. Community volunteers, including parents of some of the teens, staff the service during the day while the teen-agers are in school. A group of adult volunteers trained in advanced life support also takes turns meeting the teen ambulance at every scene because teens under 18 are not allowed by state law to administer certain medical care. Only 10% of the applicants make it, Doble said. Students must have at least a C average in school, and they are required to take 50 hours of first-aid classes and 120 hours of emergency medical technician training.

--Barbara Walters and television executive Merv Adelson were married in a ceremony attended by about 80 family members and friends. Walters, 54, co-host of the ABC-TV news magazine “20-20,” and Adelson, 56, chairman and chief executive of Lorimar Telepictures, were married at a private Beverly Hills home. “I thought I was looking at two teen-agers getting married. I’ve never seen a happier couple,” Barbara Brogliatti, a spokeswoman, said. The marriage is the second for Walters and the third for Adelson. The couple had no immediate honeymoon plans, Brogliatti said. “They’re both back to work come Monday,” she said.

--Finders aren’t always keepers. A St. Louis man returned a purse containing $3,200 to a 71-year-old woman who had lost it after putting it on her car’s trunk. The woman, a retired police dispatcher, said she had been shopping and had placed her purse on the trunk of her car while she opened the door and then drove off. Meantime, Doyle Heamon, a newspaper circulation employee, found the purse in the middle of a south St. Louis street. When he found the money and identification, “the temptation to keep it was there,” Heamon said. “But it wasn’t mine and if I had lost that kind of money, I’d be sick.” The woman gave him $500 as a reward.