Submitted Photo Participating in a check donation Thursday are, from left, Terah Lynn, Amanda Bibb and Mason Terry with the New Town Ambulance Service, Slawson guest Cameron LeVasseur and Lynn Welker and Liz Naatz with Slawson Energy. Slawson presented the ambulance service with $25,000 for a new ambulance.

NEW TOWN – The New Town Ambulance Service received a significant boost in its fundraising for a new ambulance Thursday with a $25,000 donation from Slawson Exploration.

Paramedic Amanda Bibb, ambulance service manager, said the capital drive continues to seek to raise an additional $150,000 toward a nearly $245,000 capital drive for an ambulance and cot system purchase.

The ambulance service previously received $5,000 from Marathon Oil and a $15,000 matching grant from QEP Resources. Workforce Safety & Insurance provided a $10,000 grant toward a cot, or stretcher, system to equip the ambulance. The ambulance service also has a replacement fund from which it is able to draw funding, and Mountrail County is providing additional assistance.

The ambulance service has four ambulances. Two are necessary to provide 24/7 on-call service and a third ambulance comes online during busy periods, such as when major powwows are held, or when standing by at sporting or casino events. The fourth is available as a backup. The squad receives just over 1,000 calls a year.

“Most of our patients are transported to Trinity Hospital in Minot. One way, that’s 75 miles,” Bibb said. “So we tend to put a lot of miles on in a year. Two of our ambulances are starting to get toward the end of their lives.

“The biggest thing for us is we need to make sure we have ambulances that are reliable and dependable because we are driving 75 miles to a hospital,” she added. “We see all sort of medical trauma. We need to rely on the ambulance to get us there. It’s nice to be able to have the ambulance and then to have the equipment to provide the best care that we possibly can to our patients.”