The Crozet Community Association’s Good Neighbor Award was presented to Western Albemarle Rescue Squad stalwart Purcell McCue October 19 at the squad house. On hand for the occasion were Crozet Board of Trade President Mike Marshall, squad chief Kostis Alibertis, McCue, longtime CCA president Tim Tolson and a handful of McCue’s relatives. The award recognizes local volunteers whose contributions to Crozet go beyond the ordinary. Typically, GNA recipients are people who prefer that their service not be noticed. McCue ducked presentation arrangements for three months.
After a long career in law enforcement and years as a Crozet volunteer fireman, McCue joined the rescue squad as a driver in 2003. He immediately earned WARS’s Frances Henry Award, which honors the volunteer who ran the most emergency calls in a year. By 2006, it became apparent that he would win that award virtually every year, so he declined to accept it any more, shifting the spotlight to others who are similarly dedicated.
When asked to estimate how many hospital runs McCue has made, Alibertis raised both hands and looked to the sky, a gesture that meant “go count the stars.”
McCue declined to say how fast he has pushed the ambulances to go. Any limit? “I don’t look [at the dashboard] when I hit the limit,” said McCue with a shrug meant to convey ignorance of just how fast he might have gone.
Has he raced down center lines when speeding to a hospital? “That median is the ambulance lane,” he explained.
Otherwise, he evaded every question that might have brought him trouble.
After he moved to Afton, McCue began to volunteer for the Rockfish Valley squad. He recalled one night at the squad’s annual award banquet when a call for a heart attack victim came in. McCue got to the location first, followed by the Crozet squad. “Crozet asked me to drive because they wanted to get to UVA [hospital] faster,” McCue recalled. “I got back to the banquet just as the chief’s speech was ending. I timed it right.”
McCue still runs calls and is always on hand with the ambulance at Western Albemarle football games.
If you’ve called for emergency medical help in the last two decades, when time meant life, you may owe McCue gratitude.
With 130 volunteers—in fact, it is all-volunteer—the squad answered 2,278 calls in 2025, an 8.5 percent increase over the year before, and this year it is on track to reach 2,500 calls.
