I have been very fortunate to
meet many fine individuals since I joined SAR just about 10 years ago. People who care, who are committed and who
understand our roles as SAR personnel.
Individuals who are willing to give of their self's and of their
precious time. They do this for a multitude
of reasons, they serve their communities, their units and they serve our one
large SAR team that we have here in San Bernardino County.
Donna Newlin of Rim SAR, Sgt.
Jeff Morgan of Volunteer Forces and myself had a chance to meet one other fine
individual yesterday in San Jose. He
was a young man of 24, who cared about his family, his friends, his fellow SAR
unit members and his community. He
joined the San Luis Obispo SAR unit just over a year ago. Just last month he was voted-in as a regular
full time member of the unit after a year of training and certifying.
He was a graduate of Cal Poly San
Luis Obispo and was the former president of his fraternity. He was active in
his church as a counselor, was a certified EMT and worked for an ambulance
company.
Unfortunately, we did not get to
meet him in person. Sadly, he was killed
last week while performing his SAR duties while on a mission. We only got to meet him in spirit and
through the eyes and comments of others who attended his service.
His name was: Chris Meadows.
There was a large portrait and an
oil painting of Chris up by the podium for the service. We watched a slide presentation that showed
him from his infancy to pictures taken just a few days prior to his untimely
death. Every picture showed him with
his family and friends. Every picture depicted a young man who cherished life,
who enjoyed life and who was looking forward to having a long and productive
life. In every picture Chris had a huge
smile that was just plain infectious, you almost wanted to smile back at the
pictures of him. You could tell that this
was a young man who enjoyed every aspect of his environment.
During the service I could not
forget what we all went though when we lost Scott and Phil a few years
ago. I remember how we all felt that
sense of loss and how we tried to deal with the reasoning of why and how
come. I remember how we all pulled
together to get through those trying time and the help that we received from
our fellow members, the other agencies and their personnel. I once again saw that support at Chris's
funeral.
Gathered were Chris's family,
friends, police officers, fire department personnel, paramedics, SAR members in
orange and ambulance drivers from all around our state. All of these individuals were gathered as
one to pay their respects to Chris and to his family and friends.
They gathered to share the grief,
to lend their support and to let his family and friends know that we do care
about one of our own. It is truly amazing to see this united support from so
many during these trying times. We as
SAR members do belong to a very unique family.
It is something that each and every of one of us should be very proud
of.
At the
service and on the flight home, I am sure that both Donna and Sgt. Morgan also
had time to reflect on what they felt this day. I cannot speak for them, however I do know one thing...all three of
us got to know a fellow SAR member and neither of us will forget him. When you pray, take a moment and put Chris
Meadows in your prayers...."May he rest in peace".
Once again we had another quiet
month in regards to call-outs. Not much
going on, but we are thankful for that.
However, things still go forward and the SAR Council continues to work
on a multitude of projects.
As you have heard we have SAR
Council T-Shirts now on sell. Place
your order today, give me a call or email and we will get them out to you. White crew necks, short and long sleeves,
$12.50 and $15.00 respectively.
The department granted final
approval of our new OHVSAR Standards.
All committee members and Unit Commanders were emailed these standards a
couple of weeks ago. Read them over and
get to know what is expected of you and your team to be certified as an OHVSAR
member.
The "10th Annual
Sheriff's Benefit Rodeo Ranger BBQ and Trail Ride" is going to be held on
June 14th at Los Flores Ranch.
Short notice, but if you plan on attending please read the flyer at www.sbsar.org
The Council's PR/Display
Trailer is moving forward. We would
like to thank the following units for their contributions towards this
undertaking: Bear Valley Posse, Cave
and Technical Rescue Unit, East Valley Posse, Morongo Basin Mounted SAR,
Morongo Basin SAR, Needles SAR, San Bernardino Mountain SAR and West Valley
Posse. If any of the other units would like make a donation please make a check
out to: IESARC and mail to: Dave Nicolet, P.O. Box 1432, Morongo Valley,
Ca. 92256. Again, a big thank you to
the units mentioned above.
The final touches have been put
on the Citizens Volunteer Memorial.
Funds are now going to be raised to complete this project by the end of
November of this year. The committee
has met and is working on bids.
However, we need your help. We
are looking for a motto to put on the Memorial. We are not going to use "so other may live" because that is
geared solely towards SAR. We need a
short motto that covers all of our volunteer units. Sooo...we are having a "MOTTO CONTEST". Please submit to me, via email, your
idea that is stated in eight words or less.
The winner of the Motto Contest will receive a $50.00 gift certificate
to a restaurant of their choice.
Congratulations to Bear Valley
SAR for completing the Helitac Course on May 31st. We still have units who have not taken this
course. As stated we need a minimum of
3 to 5 members from each unit to be certified.
Please call Sgt. Stewart at Aviation and make your appointment ASAP. Phone number is: 909-356-3800. We do have
at least five openings for each of the classes that are going to be held on
June 20th and June 27. Please
contact me and let me know if your have members who would like to team up with
other units who are taking these classes.
The MUDRUN is scheduled
for September 12, 2009. The department
is looking for security personnel, people to assist on the course and units
that would like to display their goods. A list of manpower request will be sent
out in the very near future.
Dan Whitten is still waiting to
receive the Training Surveys that were due on June 1st. If your unit had not sent these back, please
do so ASAP. If you need
assistance with these forms please contact Dan at 909-387-0678.
The Urban Search and Rescue
Orientation is going to be held on July 18th in Wrightwood. If you would like to attend, please read the
flyer that is on our www.sbsar.org website.
And...last but not least, the
members of the SAR Council would like to congratulate Frank Kams of the
West Valley SAR for being selected as the new Assistant Director of the
IESARC. Frank is a SAR Tech I, is the
past unit commander of WVSAR, a staff member of the BSAR School and is
certified as an Intermediate Rope Technician.
He is Alpine qualified and is WVSAR's California Region MRA
Representative. Frank is going to bring
many talents to our Board of Directors...........we all are looking forward to
serving with him and having him as a member of our team.
I am looking forward to seeing
all of you soon.... until then, please...........
Be Safe
Dave Nicolet, Director
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