Hogan: Celebrate local firefighters at Faithbridge cookout
Every summer, we at Faithbridge Community Church have cookouts for the community every other Wednesday from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
We love to do it. It's gotten more expensive with the cattle shortage that's driven up beef prices these last two years, but, thankfully, it's manageable.
We have two left this summer. This Wednesday, Aug. 19, and then Sept. 2.
That last one, we’re planning to celebrate the local fire department.
We're celebrating them because of their service to the community.
This West Park department has been around for a very long time, putting out fires, working car accidents and answering false alarms decade after decade since the beginning of last century.
Growing up, back in the days of the fire whistle to signal a need for the volunteer firefighters to rush to the station, our next-door neighbor Dan Michaelangelo was one of those men.
We would hear the whistle begin echoing through the valley in Stowe Township at 3 a.m. and in a matter of seemingly seconds we'd hear Dan’s back door slam shut as he raced for his car
He did that for years, often coming home exhausted, reeking of smoke, muscles aching from wrestling a high-pressure hose, and he'd head off to his day job.
A vital, mostly thankless job. Towns that can't pay firefighters have to rely on folks willing to risk life and limb out of service to their community and the surrounding ones
Today's version of the department doesn't use the old fire whistle. Nowadays there are apps and cellular technology supplanting that.
One day last year I stopped by the station to say hi, knowing that it seemed like most evenings someone was there, fire or no fire.
That, I was told by the chief, is intentional. The firefighters take turns staffing the station overnight to get a jump on any emergency that might arise.
I was impressed with the level of effort and sacrifice that entails.
Folks leave their families and homes to ensure that the accident victim might get cut from the car in time to save their life when seconds matter, or to keep a kitchen fire’s damage to just the kitchen by getting to the scene before it becomes a house-claiming conflagration.
That's a noteworthy approach.
No one at the department is asking for accolades or expressions of gratitude.
We're going to celebrate and thank them anyway.
You're invited to come have a burger and say thanks yourself.
Sept. 2 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., in the yard at 618 Russellwood Ave, just across from Sto-Rox High School.
Hopefully, there will be no emergency to pull the crew away from the cookout.
Know that if there is, those folks will be gone in a wink, running off to make a difference in someone's life.
The Rev. James Hogan is a native of Stowe Township and serves as pastor of Faithbridge Community Church. His views do not reflect the views of the West Hills Gazette.
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