Peninsula In Passage

Bennett’s Creek Rescue Squad The story goes that in the late 1960s Junie Lancaster happened upon a horrendous accident on U. S 17 – and felt powerless to help the victim. Although details of the accident vary from person to person, Lancaster’s reaction was immediate and clear - Bennett’s Creek needed a volunteer rescue squad. With his usual direct approach, Lancaster set out to organize one. “Junie was always busy – liked to give,” his wife, Millie, says. “He started the rescue squad after seeing the accident and seeing that it took a long time for help to get to the injured woman.” The squad’s roster of early members indicates Lancaster urged those closest around him to volunteer for the fledgling group that organized in 1970. John Eberwine was the original president of the Bennett’s Creek Rescue Squad. “We had about 15 members, including Floyd Twiford and Junie Lancaster, plus Wayne Sawyer and Jodie Matthews as associate members,” Eberwine recalls. “The squad really pulled this community together.” “The rescue squad kept Jodie straight,” his mother, Phyllis Matthews, remembers. Mike Moring, John Lancaster, and Robert Bock were all early members of the squad too. The first headquarters was a shed donated by Frederick Beazley on the college property at Pig Point. Then J. C. Matthews donated land behind his Bennett’s Creek Market and the squad pitched in to build a headquarters building. J. C. Matthews, although never officially on the squad roster, acted as dispatcher, fielding emergency calls while customers waited – and understood.

Jodie Matthews

119