“Live United” means different things to different people on different days. Or maybe it just has many facets and they are revealed a little bit at a time. Whatever the case, early this morning I got a glimpse of another way we live united and don’t even think about it.
By early I mean 4:00 a.m., when the phone rang and it was the security company saying that the fire alarm had gone off at the Foothills United Way building and the fire department had been dispatched. There is good news and bad news here. The good news is that the systems work and that all procedures were in motion to respond to a potential disaster. The bad news, aside from the hour, was that the system and the procedures needed to be employed in the first place. The really good news is that there was no fire found.
It is very disturbing to arrive in the dark at a building that houses an agency whose sole mission is to serve the community and see five firefighters in full gear with axes and bolt cutters ready to move into it. And yet, it is also very comforting. These men and women were also called out of bed and yet were ready to do whatever it took to safeguard our community and its resources.
We all hold in high regard firefighters and respect the work they do. Just as much---or maybe even more---we should respect the work they are poised to do. We count on them being there when we need them. We count on them being there when we don’t need them.
And that is the way it is with so many services in our community. We don’t think about them or even see them until we need them. But when we or someone we know does need them, knowing that they are there is best and most reassuring feeling possible. We DO “Live United” everyday and that makes all of our lives a little easier.
--Barbara Pingrey
