SunBuggy has been providing a free beach tram service at the Oceano Dunes SVRA and we have been requesting a minimum donation of $5 to ride the beach tram, 100% of which goes directly to the Christopher Meadows Memorial Education Fund. We are proud to announce that we have recently exceeded $5,000 in monies raised for this very worthwhile charity to remember this fallen hero, and let other continue on the path to help others where his life was cut short.
More information about Christopher’s story is below. The charity is hosted at Charity Smith:
http://www.charitysmith.org/christopher-meadows-paramedic-scholarship/
To take a Tram ride at the Oceano Dunes Go to: http://www.sunbuggy.com/pismo
While he had shown interest in riding along with the fire department and listening to a scanner in high school, Christopher Meadows began his pursuit of an emergency medical career in earnest while he was studying in the business school at Cal Poly. During his senior year, in parallel with his Cal Poly studies, he enrolled in the EMT program at Cuesta College. After successfully completing the EMT 1 certification, he hired on with San Luis Ambulance as a reserve EMT in December 2006. From then until graduation from Cal Poly in June 2007, Chris worked as many shifts as possible, immersing himself in the job with the desire to learn as fast as possible and absorb as much as possible. He loved being an EMT so much that he put his potential business career on hold so he could work full-time in emergency service for a year.
Well, the more he worked as an EMT, the more he realized that emergency care was right for him, and he was good at it. One year turned into two, and Chris agonized over which path to pursue – a business career that would be financially rewarding and leverage his college training, or one in emergency services, which he did well and loved, but would never make him rich. Chris also joined the Search and Rescue team and learned all he could about that effort. He was in the process of being appointed the medical lead when, as a search and rescue volunteer, he was tragically killed May 24, 2009 while responding to a medical call at Oceano Dunes SVRA. He was the first member in the history of the SLO Search and Rescue team to be killed in the line of duty. Found in his car after his death were two applications to paramedic schools ready to be mailed. He had chosen to go with what he loved.
Chris never got to continue his career in emergency care. He loved helping people, but only got to do it for a little over two years. Chris was incredibly bright and only did things one way – the right way. The successful recipient of this scholarship must be prepared to pick up where Chris left off, and not only pursue his dream, but deliver on the promise of making the world a better place through dispensing excellent emergency care.