November 2007 Members of the Month - Stevan Porter and Rick diZerega

This month President Weiss and I have decided to award two Members of the Month. They both contributed significantly to the switch over from our old security system to Stanley Security Solutions. If you couldn’t guess…Stevan Porter and Rick diZerega are November’s Members of the Month.

 

Stevan Porter was raised near Seattle Washington (aka Pullayup) with a younger sister Lisa. He attended Washington State University, Gonzaga University, and Catholic University of America. He has a BA in Social Sciences and a Minor in Sociology. He is currently employed by Oracle as a Support Engineer. Steve joined the Loudoun County Volunteer Rescue Squad in September of 2002. He has served a 3-year term as our immediate past President. He currently is a released Paramedic, known as 1306. Steve is our Lieutenant of Training, solely responsible for the weekly TNI’s that we all receive via email. Steve’s other volunteer activities include serving on the Loudoun Volunteer Services Board and the Northern Virginia Regional EMS Council. Steve enjoys reading, photography and playing guitar. Steve has been to Israel on a study trip and used to be a Roman Catholic seminarian. When he’s not spending time with us (approximately 100 hours per month), Steve spends time with Johnise Molloy, his significant other.

 

Rick diZerega joined the squad as a Junior Member in May of 1971 when an Advanced First Aid Card was the highest level of training required, and the Loudoun Hospital's ER was NOT a 24/7 operation. Rick was also a Junior Member of the Fire Company when dual membership was not uncommon. He is currently the only person to maintain active membership in both companies. Rick completed the first EMT course offered in Loudoun County, and has held operational offices ranging from Junior Captain, Training Officer, Asst. Chief and even Chief. He has also held the administrative offices of Vice President and has served on the Board of Directors. Currently employed by Orbital Sciences in the facility management field, Rick has attempted to lend this experience and expertise to the Squad. He worked as a weekend night security officer at Loudoun Hospital (Cornwall) for the last 13 years, and has been known to travel internationally and domestically, attaining his goal of visiting all 50 states before the age of 21. Rick enjoys riding motorcycles and currently own two Harley Davidsons. In fact, he has ridden one of them in 48 of the 50 states. Rick has visited over 70 countries and each of the 7 continents, and will be travailing to Argentina on Sunday to rent a car and drive around for 10 days. Rick is generally quiet and shy, but can be coaxed into sharing a humorous observation now and then. He believes that the volunteer/combination system will work as long as the volunteers make every effort to take a stand for what is right and become directly involved in the progress being made. Rick is single, lives alone, has no pets, but loves dogs and cats – but only if they are cooked properly!

 

Last month Steve and Rick coordinated the installation of our security system. They contracted with the security company we had on duty over multiple nights while the system was being installed. Steve created every user group and assigned every career and volunteer provider access cards with permissions. He then made sure the cards were distributed in a timely manner to every one and kept us informed on the status of the changeover and had to be flexible in his plans due to the complications they encountered. Rick worked “behind the scenes” initially, figuring out the complexity of our old security system’s electronics. Rick’s knowledge of security systems from work came in handy with the installation of our new system. Both Steve and Rick took time away from their paid jobs to be available for the installation.

 

Because they put us first, Steve and Rick are November’s Squad Persons of the Month.

 

-Chief Marie Powell