[PPRAANet] El Paso County SAR volunteer celebrates 50 years with organization

Sat Sep 30 14:48:30 EDT 2023

Dennis,

Thanks for distributing this... So cool to read about Skee!
I met him, but I don't think that I ever worked with him.

On the other hand, I was in El Paso Country RACES in the 1990s
and *I think* I knew Ginger (NØUOD?) a little bit in that context,
particularly when Bdale Garbee (sp?) lectured on Packet Radio
and its applications to Emergency Communications.

73,

 = "Schaar"
i.e., Steve  Schaarschmidt, KØCI
ex-WNØQPQ-->WBØQPQ, PPRAA since 1976 or 77

On Thu, Sep 28, 2023 at 10:31 AM Dennis N0ABC <N0ABC at msn.com> wrote:

> I don't recall seeing this on the reflector....
>
> "Skee" is a long-time member of PPRAA and many other of the local ham
> organizations.
>
> The link, which includes a picture, may be behind a paywall, so here is
> the text of the article.
>
>
>
>
> https://gazette.com/news/el-paso-county-search-and-rescue-volunteer-celebrates-50-years-with-organization/article_ad90168a-53ec-11ee-8676-2fd7dfa5ad9e.html
>
> El Paso County Search and Rescue volunteer celebrates 50 years with
> organization
>
> Zachary Dupont zachary.dupont at gazette.com
>
> Sep 16, 2023 Updated 2 hrs ago
>
>
>   In 1973, Skee Hipszky, 18, became a volunteer for El Paso County
> Search and Rescue.
>
> In 2023, Hipszky, now 68, remains a volunteer with El Paso County Search
> and Rescue, and is now by far the organization's longest-tenured volunteer.
>
> "Sometimes you think 'wow, have that many years gone by already?'"
> Hipszky said on his 50th anniversary volunteering for the organization.
>
> Hipszky is a former life support instructor at UCHealth Memorial
> Hospital Central, now retired, with a passion for medicine and helping
> people, who guesses that he has conducted more than 3,500 operations
> since joining the organization 50 years ago.
>
> Those operations are often dramatically different from one to the other,
> last week in Hipszky's most recent operation he and others went to go
> help a young woman who had injured her ankle on Barr Trail and needed
> assistance getting out.
>
> That operation was tame for Hipszky, compared to some of the other
> stories he had to tell.
>
> Hipszky recalled in 1994 that search and rescue was tasked with helping
> a group of cross-country skiers who were seriously injured in an
> avalanche and stuck on Pikes Peak.
>
> Hipszky and others were sent to Pikes Peak to provide medical treatment
> and begin the process of evacuation, but shortly after their arrival on
> scene an unexpected blizzard roared through with winds of over 70 mph,
> trapping everyone on the mountain.
>
> "It was absolutely miserable," Hipszky recalled. "It literally became a
> life and death situation for rescuer as well as for the patients."
>
> The blizzard resulted in the whole crew being trapped on the mountain
> overnight with no way to get down until the next morning, when a brief
> break in the storm allowed a helicopter to pick up everyone.
>
> Some of Hipzsky's fellow volunteers recall working on operations with
> him where he had literally saved someone's life, operations that didn't
> even come to mind when Hipszky spoke about his own career.
>
> Tim Hayden and Brian Kinsey have both been volunteers with El Paso
> County Search and Rescue for more than 30 years, and the pair recalled a
> time when the organization was called on to help a man who was having
> chest pains at the top of the Manitou Incline.
>
> Hayden said that as Hipszky was arriving on scene the man went into
> cardiac arrest; another member of El Paso County Search Rescue began
> performing CPR while Hipszky used a defibrillator to keep the man alive.
> The man ended up surviving and writing about it in a blog only a week
> later, Hayden said.
>
> Hipszky had taught the other member who had performed CPR how to do so
> only a week before the incident, according to Hayden.
>
> "Wilderness saves like that are very rare," Hayden said. "Skee clearly
> saved that guy's life."
>
> Those operations, as well as the more than 3,500 other operations
> Hipszky has been a part of the past 50 years, were all done entirely as
> a volunteer. El Paso County Search and Rescue is an organization made up
> of only volunteers, and the entirety of their equipment is donated, or
> bought with donated funds.
>
> "I can't tell you how many times I've missed dinner or I've missed a
> movie, you just paid tickets to go see the movie and the pager goes
> off," Hipszky said. "I'm glad I have such a supportive wife."
>
> It's even become a family affair for the Hipszky's, with his wife,
> Ginger, occasionally helping out the organization, doing weather
> forecasting and speaking with the National Weather Service when needed.
>
> Currently, El Paso County Search and Rescue are finalists for the Land
> Rover Defenders Service Award, where the organization with the most
> votes gets a new Jeep Land Rover outfitted with all the necessary
> equipment for wilderness search and rescue operations.
>
> For Hipszky, being a part of Search and Rescue has always been about
> being able to use what he loves to help people. Hipszky said that his
> love for the outdoors, love for mountain climbing and love for helping
> others is what got him to join Search and Rescue 50 years ago, and that
> those reasons are why he remains so dedicated to the organization to
> this day.
>
> "I truly feel like this was my calling, my purpose in life," Hipszky said.
>
> Christopher Valentine, the public information officer for Search and
> Rescue and a new volunteer to the organization talked about how
> Hipszky's experience and dedication in the organization is unmatched.
>
> "He is a leader by example," Valentine said of Hipszky. "One of those
> people that you just know that if you have a question, he's been there,
> done that, you can you can lean on him. He's always he's always there to
> offer advice.
>
> While Valentine hasn't experienced some of the more adrenaline-inducing
> operations that Hipszky has, Kinsey and Hayden — each with over 30 years
> of experience themselves — had similar things to say about Hipszky's
> dedication to the organization.
>
> "He is someone you kind of wanted to emulate," Hayden said. "Always
> being there, always being available and always being prepared."
>
> "He always seems to be the first at an operation," Kinsey said. "He's
> willing to take on any role ... and he's been a coordinator and leader
> the entire time I've been with (Search and Rescue)."
>
> For Hipszky, he says the gratification he gets from helping others is
> more than enough reward for what he does.
>
> Hipszky recalled how on a small handful of occasions he would be out in
> public and someone he had helped rescue in an operation would come up
> and thank him.
>
> "I was taught by my parents to help others and not expect anything in
> return," Hipszky said. "It's really weird, but gratifying, to have
> people come up to you out of nowhere and say, 'thank you for helping
> me,' or 'you guys helped my son or my nephew on one of the trails."
>
> Now at 50 years with Search and Rescue, Hipszky has no plans to slow
> down, joking — or perhaps saying in earnest- that he's looking forward
> to his 60th anniversary.
>
> --
> 73
>
> Dennis Major, N0ABC
>
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