My squad is the primary EMS response in our town from 6pm to 6am, Monday - Friday, and 24 hours/day on Weekends. During the work week, we cannot be assured of getting a crew out and we go dual response with the paid crew from one town over. Needless to say, if our squad does not get out during the week, you are waiting considerably longer for help to get there, but there's not much we can do about it - too many people commute into NYC for work.

New York State provides a $200 income tax credit each year that you have served for a full year with either volunteer fire, EMS, or police auxiliary. There is a LOSAP program as well, but it is only available to firefighters, not dedicated EMS folk like me. There is talk of providing free tuition to Nassau Community College for volunteers, but that's running into budgetary issues, so who knows if it will happen.