Hello Neighbor | Michael Baskin, Everyday Hero
There is no doubt that we all gratefully appreciate the readiness of our local fire companies, who are there to help us when we really need it. The Berwyn Fire Company serves the T/E community everyday, responding to over 2150 ambulance calls and 900 fire calls annually. I recently learned a lot about the Berwyn Fire Company from EMS Captain, Michael Baskin. First of all, I learned that the Captain's position is a volunteer one. Michael volunteers his time to fill this role all while being a business owner and active member of our community. He has been involved with the Berwyn Fire Company since high school and has spent countless hours as the Captain, working hard to make sure that the Fire Company's services are available to us all. Secondly, I learned that the Berwyn Fire Company depends heavily upon donations from the community to meet it's operating expenses. I am grateful that we have Everyday Heroes like Captain Michael Baskin as well as community members who offer the Fire Company their support every year.
I grew up in Paoli PA. I’ve lived in T/E since first grade. I went to college in Ithaca, NY for 4 years but other than that I’ve always been in this area. When I was a kid I was really into sports and a lot of technology and television and production. My first job was for Harron Communications. I programmed Television programming for the local TV channel. Before I joined the Berwyn Fire Company I was a junior in high school and just did normal high school things. My family still lives in the T/E community. They are very supportive of me and everything I do.
I’m also a small business owner that does a lot of things having to do with video transfers and conversions. As part of that I am a contractor with the T/E School District where I run their cocurricular program for television broadcasting We broadcast a lot of events and sports and different things like that on the community tv channel. in addition to that I’ll video tape school board meetings and other township wide interests that the school district would like to put on tv. On an average day at work I’m all over the place. I have two retail stores so I visit one if not both of those stores on a daily basis. Then I help work with our customers. In the afternoons I spend it at the high school in their tv studio.
The Berwyn Fire Company has been a major part of my life for 21 years and I’ve been on thousands of call doing lots of different jobs. its a pretty amazing part of my life that I’ll never give up. You might be surprised to learn it’s the equivalent of a full time job being EMS Captain. it’s a lot of things that I never though it would be when I first took the position 4 years ago. I’ve learned a lot about billing, and medicare, and lots of things that I never thought I’d be a part of learning. Plus there’s a massive amount of HR dealing with 40 some volunteers and another 30-35 career staff on a daily basis. It’s not a lot of things that most people, including myeslf, wouldn’t ever have thought it would be when I first started. I’ll always remember the comradery amongst being part of this organization. lifelong friends. People that have been a part of doing calls and lifesaving activities, fires and different things like that, will always be able to share memories together. And just the experiences that I’ll be able to take with me.
If I could have my photo taken with anyone, aside from my family, I’d probably go with Derrick Trucks. He’s a phenom guitar player that I follow pretty closely. I think that’s he’s somebody that I just always have admired.
Last year I spent a lot of my time working as a board member here and sitting down with township officials and attending a lot of political discussions revolving around funding for the Fire Company. Next year I will probably spend more time doing the exact same thing trying to secure sustainable funding for the Fire Departments.
Photography and interview by Emily Brunner Photography
To find out more about the Berwyn Fire Company visit www.berwynfireco.org
To find out more about T&E Care visit www.tecare.org