Honoring our local heroes

Whitefish can be proud of Ben Parsons, a full-time firefighter and paramedic for the Whitefish Fire Department who jumped in to save another firefighter’s life last month in Oregon after he’d completed a mountain-bike endurance race. He was in the right place at the right time, putting to use those same skills he practices on a daily basis to ensure public safety in Whitefish.

Unfortunately, Parson is scheduled to lose his job the end of this month in the latest round of city budget cuts. The firefighters’ union is working with city officials to spare Parson’s position, and Whitefish firefighters have offered to give up cost-of-living raises. We encourage the city to find a way to preserve the current force of 15 firefighters.

BEING IN the right place at the right time also explains how five Kalispell-area residents became heroes.

Unlike Ben Parsons, however, these folks never expected to become lifesavers. But that’s just what happened.

The group from Faith Free Lutheran was driving back from the Spokane airport after completing a mission trip to Tucson, Ariz., when they saw a smoking vehicle just east of St. Regis on I-90.

Stopping to investigate, they found that the vehicle had been driven into a tree. Driver Larry Drake, 54, was incapacitated, but alive, trapped behind a door that wouldn’t open. As they struggled to free him, his clothes and hair caught on fire.

But the five missionaries did not panic. They fought back the flames and pulled  Drake to safety through a rear door.

Let’s add to that definition of a hero: Being in the right place at the right time — with the right character — is what makes someone a true good Samaritan.

LAST, BUT NOT LEAST, we want to remember another local hero — Becky Mattson of Lakeside — who died last week.

Mattson was a longtime champion of National Good Neighbor Day, which she launched in the 1970s to place a greater emphasis on the importance of community.

During the following decades, Mattson tirelessly teamed up with a succession of Montana’s U.S. senators to have the resolution renewed yearly proclaiming National Good Neighbor Day.

Becky was a good neighbor to us all and will be missed.