Love is patient,
Love is kind.
It does not envy,
It does not boast,
It is not proud.
It is not rude,
It is not self-seeking,
It is not easily angered,
It keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.
1st Corinthians 13:4-8
Brett Fadgen grew up down the street from a fire company in Shaler. He chose the station’s lot as a frequent meeting place with friends and enjoyed watching firefighters work.
“I couldn’t get enough of being around there,” Fadgen said. “Every kid loves fire trucks, but it’s what those people did that amazed me. I always knew I would have a career where I’d get to help people and make a difference.”
Now a paramedic with Ross/West View Emergency Medical Services, he is doing just that. On Saturday, the Pennsylvania Emergency Health Services Council recognized Fadgen as Paramedic of the Year at its annual conference in Lancaster.
Fadgen, 31, began emergency medical technician training at age 16. He took his first paramedic position in Erie after graduating from college. He took a paramedic’s job with Ross/West View in 2003 and moved back to Shaler.
Janette Kearney, the Pennsylvania Emergency Health Services Council’s executive director, said judges selected Fadgen from more than 20 finalists.
“I take my job very seriously,” Fadgen said. “But I could never have imagined I’d receive an honor like this.”
His application did not mention that he was born without a right forearm and wears a prosthesis, which requires him to perform complicated medical procedures using one hand.
Fadgen said he does not consider it a handicap.
“It made training a lot harder for me, but I do everything that any other paramedic does, and I am good at what I do,” he said. “I’m glad the judges were not made aware, because now I can know I received this award because of ability and not disability.”
Belinda Barnett, who wrote Fadgen’s nomination letter, was one of his trainees.
“He is an extraordinary teacher,” said Barnett, a Ross/West View volunteer emergency medical technician. “He’s also so great at what he does, especially at keeping people calm during their worst moments.”
Fadgen recently accepted a full-time registered nursing position at UPMC Presbyterian in Oakland, but will continue part time with Ross/West View.
“We’re going to miss him in a full-time capacity, but we’re very happy that he’s going to continue to serve here,” Ross/West View Executive Director Bryan Kircher said. “He’s helped a lot of people over the years, and has served as a great mentor and role model.”
Fadgen is a part-time flight paramedic for STAT MedEvac and volunteer firefighter in Shaler.
He credits his family, friends and colleagues with providing motivation and support.
“You have to be able to do your job knowing that whatever happens, you still have to go out later and handle the next call,” Fadgen said. “There are some things we see on a daily basis that a lot of people could not handle, and I’m fortunate to have people who provide me with the strength to do it.”
We were saved, and we have this hope.
Romans 8:24
You know the old saying, that where there is life there is hope. But I know a better one. Just turn it around: Where there is hope there is life. You’re never defeated, you’re never beaten down as long as you have hope.
And true hope. Hope that saves, is hope in God. It isn’t blind hope, or egotistic hope, but hope in God. It is God who fives power. God is the great renewing force. Get God in your heart. If he comes in, hope comes in. Keep this thought in mind as difficulties and sorrows and sickness and trouble come upon you. Jeep in mind that, like spring, hope always comes back.
Hope! What a word it is! Say it to yourself the last thing before you go to bed; say it the first thing in the morning. Let it permeate your subconscious. Hope will solve all your problems. It will solve world problems. Hope will guarantee that you stay alive all your life. Go out and spread hope all up and down the streets as you walk them - hope for the world, hope in God, hope in the future.
by Norman Vincent Peale
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints,
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Look up! Look up! The Perseids are coming!
Meteors will be racing across the sky from the dusty fragments of an old comet this weekend and, with no moon out at night, should enchant patient sky watchers who’ve never seen them before, and give astronomers delightful work.
The Perseid meteor shower happens every August, and although it’s not unusual at this time of year for nighttime fog to obscure the spectacle for everyone in San Francisco, the problem can be overcome by heading for the hills outside the city. Other good spots for viewing include Bay Area parks and meadows where city lights can’t pollute the dark sky.
The best time to view the Perseids should be from Sunday after 10 p.m. until well before dawn Monday, but a few meteors will already be flying across the sky before midnight tonight and dawn Sunday, astronomers say.
Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, calculates that by 11 p.m. Sunday, about 15 streaks of light every hour will be flaring like falling stars across small segments of the sky. But by 5:14 a.m. Monday - just before dawn - the count could rise to nearly one every minute, Jenniskens said.
Most Perseids are likely to be somewhat faint, but now and then a single streak could shine as brightly as a star, he said.
The Perseid meteors are named after the region in the constellation Perseus known as the radiant where, to those watching, they appear to originate. They are, in fact, the dusty debris of a comet named Swift-Tuttle that orbits the sun and flies through the inner solar system roughly every 120 years.
The comet was discovered in 1862, and astronomers last observed it in 1992. But each year Earth’s orbit carries it through the trail of particles from the comet - some are even as large as pebbles - that the sun’s violent energy has stripped away. When those particles pass through the Earth’s upper atmosphere they vaporize by friction into short-lived white-hot streaks.
At the end of this month, a truly rare and perhaps even more spectacular meteor shower called the Aurigids will also be visible briefly over Northern California skies, Jenniskens said.
About 2,000 years ago, a comet now called Kiess passed by the sun and flew back beyond the solar system before returning again in 1911, leaving behind a thin stream of dust particles that only occasionally encounter Earth’s orbital path. The dusty meteors appear to originate in the constellation Auriga, hence the shower’s name.
This year the Aurigid meteors will flare for only about an hour and should peak around 4:36 a.m. on Sept. 1. Sky watchers should be able to count almost 160 of the “falling stars” in that brief period, according to Jenniskens. Some could be colorful and some even brighter than starlight, he said.
Amateur astronomers - and professionals, too - will use this weekend’s Perseid shower to practice their observation skills in preparation for the peak appearance of the Aurigid meteors.
Jenniskens will be flying out of the NASA Ames Research Center this weekend to practice observing and counting the Perseids, and then will lead two NASA planes on a rare all-night airborne mission to observe the Aurigids.
Online resources
Astronomer Peter Jenniskens has created a “Fluxtimator” applet that enables computers users with Java software to calculate the approximate meteor count each night for both showers. It can be found at: links.sfgate.com/ZOQ
Meteor viewing tips
Andrew Fraknoi, chairman of astronomy at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, offers these recommendations:
E-mail David Perlman at dperlman@sfchronicle.com. article
Sky3c sponsored by Seven Jeans Sale