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An interview with Don and Marion Meseth, longtime residents of Des Plaines and dedicated members of the local Emergency Management Agency (EMA), is like a holiday visit with your favorite cousins: conversation comes easy, laughs are shared and you feel connected- like you’ve been together your whole life and no time or miles have come between you. The Meseth’s "Des Plaines experience" started in 1958 when they got married and moved to the house they still call "home" on Fox Lane. The couple’s romance grew out of their meeting at the Hub Roller Rink. Don, who was originally from Elmwood Park, fondly remembers first encountering Marion at the rink and later at a few "post rink" events: "I remember- she was the girl drinking the Stingers!" (The neat thing about Don and Marion Meseth is their sincerity and how, when they speak of each other, even after almost 50 years of marriage, they truly get that legendary "twinkle" in their eyes.) Those who know the Meseths automatically associate them with EMA, the emergency service volunteer agency that acts as a support service to the Police and Fire Departments. The couple and their daughter, Pamela, have dedicated countless hours to the volunteer organization that responds to emergency situations such as floods and hazardous material incidents, accidents requiring extra lighting and traffic control, downed power lines, snowstorms and all those incidents that occur at times when most of us would prefer to be under the blankets snoozing. It is this group that provides first aid assistance, mans volunteer telephone lines during crisis events, oversees the Emergency Operations Center, the administrative hub of emergency operations, and monitors the weather. In fact, Don has been the Des Plaines Emergency Management Coordinator for over ten years, having been appointed to the post when the organization was referred to as ESDA (Emergency Services & Disaster Agency). Involvement in this organization with its membership of orange vests and flashing lights, was a family affair. Meseth’s daughter Pamela, who was raised in Des Plaines and, as a young woman, worked in the Finance Department at Des Plaines City Hall, was an emergency services activist, particularly because of her ability to dive and her work with rescue dogs. Even today as a resident of Santa Barbara, California, Pamela keeps informed as to what is going on with the EMA organization. There is an old saying about judging people based on how they treat animals and children. Well, this is one family who has always taken great pride in their pets, particularly their dogs. It was the love of these pets that led them to the emergency service support organization to begin with. The Meseth family has continually had dogs, sometimes more than one at a time, throughout their lives. They have had a variety of breeds- schnauzers, golden retrievers, a husky and an occasional mutt. They have called their four legged friends a variety of names including Snicklefritz, Snoopy, Missy, Broom Hilda, Gunadoit, Willywannadoit, Beta, Tracker, Samantha, and Amanda. Marion and Pamela led the charge with an interest in dog obedience classes. They decided Snoopy could use a little training and it developed into a lifetime interest, not only in obedience training, but also in "search and rescue" dog operations. At one point Snoopy’s trainer was doing a dog show and asked Marion to serve as the "Obedience Trial Secretary." Little did she know that by accepting that role, she would be running the show! After that experience, she was hooked, as was the rest of the family. To this day, Marion maintains a position on the Board of the Rand Park Dog Training Club in Des Plaines. The dedicated dog lovers have since been involved in countless shows, water rescues, trackings and searches. In the mid 1970s while Marion worked as a "dog handler" for the Illini Search and Rescue Unit looking for lost kids, Alzheimer patients, and drowning victims, Don volunteered with communications with Illini Search and Rescue while maintaining his full-time profession operating a Niles trophy company called Artistic Trophys (a business the Meseths maintained until 2004). In an effort to get the required Emergency Medical Training (EMT) for his communications work with Illini Search and Rescue, he started training with the Niles Fire Department and, after 6 months, began riding every Friday night with the Des Plaines Fire Department ambulance. "That was back in the days of Des Plaines Fire Chief Don Corey, when the City’s paramedic program had just started," Don Meseth explains. The Meseths speak fondly of their dog capers, both on the obedience front and emergency work. Marion recalls Snoopy’s first obedience trial in 1962: "It was quite an event. Beautiful dogs had to look good and be at their best. I remember Don going into the ring with Snoopy. He was doing very good- off to a great start. He had just done a perfect square and was sitting perfectly when, just at that moment, a woman commented on Snoopy, ‘Isn’t he adorable?’ With that Snoopy got up on his hind legs and was disqualified!" Marion gladly explains what pooches are expected to do while being evaluated at a show, including heeling on a lead at a normal pace, performing a figure eight, sitting for one minute duration, on a "down" for three minutes, and standing for an examination on a lead. The more points a dog receives the better. A dog needs at least 170 points out of 200 to qualify, anything less disqualifies the dog from the competition. In addition to dog obedience, Marion recalls many of the dog rescue operations including their first drowning incident at Belleau Lake and, later, a search for a little girl who was mentally challenged. After a 10-12 hour search, the local jurisdiction decided to call out a dog search unit, which included one of the Meseth’s trained golden retrievers. Without hesitation, Marion and Don were off with their pooch, leaving a note on the table for their daughter who had gone out on a date earlier. On her arrival home and after finding the note, Pam headed out to join Mom and Dad with the search that ended successfully with the little girl being located walking in a forest preserve. The pride and love they put into their work with their dogs and emergency service is apparent in the way both Marion and Don talk about their dogs and their many experiences, including some high profile police cases. It’s intriguing to hear them relate how dogs will react on a search, how a dog’s sense of smell is 6000 times that of a human, how bloodhounds were originally the only dogs recognized by the courts to assist with investigations, how a search and rescue dog uses their sense of smell to circle and triangulate along the shoreline of a body of water indicating the location of a body, and how fulfilling it was to have a dog successfully assist Fire Department divers locate a drowning victim in one of the local lakes where plummeting temperatures created obstacles. An experienced diver, daughter Pam also took pride in diving with the Fire Department. Over the years, the Des Plaines ESDA/EMA group has had been fortunate to have several skilled divers in its ranks, including George Weiszmann and Ted Kraus, Sr., both of whom went on to administer the emergency management organization. Don was officially appointed Coordinator of the Emergency Management Agency under Des Plaines Mayor Ted Sherwood in 1994. John Dini and Earl Bosenberg had previously held the post. It is a position he has taken great pride in which is obvious from the life he and his family leads. While the role of coordinator of this group had always been important, the significance of EMA as an active local agency became all the more apparent with the occurrence of 9-11. "Since 9-11 we have made ‘Homeland Security’ a priority and have provided more extensive training for our 33 members through the NIMS (National Incident Management System). Due to Des Plaines’ geographic placement near the airport and along railroad lines, we must be aware of our City’s strategic location and what we need to do to protect our residents," Meseth said. During Des Plaines’ most recent flood in August, Don Meseth was a permanent fixture in the EOC. Everyone marveled at his stamina. He was there for both the day and night shift days on end. Some of his co-worker began to joke about him having a clone! Amazing, but true, Don does have a life outside EMA. He happens to be an accomplished barbershop bass singer and his chorus, "The New Traditions," which got its start in 1982, has had many success stories. Urged by his cousin to join the chorus, Don took him up on the offer and auditioned in 2000. The all male chorus, under the direction of Joseph Gialombardo, coined the "God of Music," has 160 members from Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and would you believe one gentleman flies in from Boston?! One of the patriotic numbers Gialombardo composed and arranged, "All Nations Rise," has been picked up by choruses internationally since the 9-11 event. The group has made seven CDs, and competes annually in a spring and fall state competition. Most recently the chorus placed 5th out of 31 choruses in the Barbershop Harmony Society International Competition in Denver. "I remember hearing my cousin with the chorus sing ‘I Have Seen The Light’ at a Christmas concert and I felt as if someone lifted me out of the chair. My cousin had been prompting me to join and after hearing them perform that song, I was convinced I should join," Meseth recalls. This past July the group received a bronze medal for placing 5th place in the national competition held in Denver. State competitions are held twice a year in the spring and fall. Fall winners go on to the international competition held in July each year. Meseth sees singing as an important part of his future and plans to keep his affiliation with The New Traditions. He is proud of the group’s successes, 18 consecutive international medals, and gladly shares the organizations Internet photo gallery. Check out http://www.newtradition.org/ntroster/Gallery/albums.php to see Don’s group in action. "So what does the future hold for this rather fascinating couple? One thing is for certain- it will always involve a four-legged friend. We’ll never be without a dog," Marion says quite seriously. And, of course, volunteer work obviously ranks as a "No. 1" priority. Most recently Marion and Don volunteered to assist with a neighborhood fundraising drive for lymphoma and leukemia and was very pleased with the outcome: "I have never seen neighbors as generous as ours were. We are just so very fortunate." I asked Marion and Don three times what prompted them to take up this type of volunteer work and the work they do with EMA. After all, much of it requires them to pass up holiday get-togethers (Don and Marion recall spending a good part of a Thanksgiving Day working at a fire on Beau Drive), carry a pager 24 hours a day, awakens them in the middle of the night, requires them to rearrange plans without notice, interrupts vacations and makes them spontaneously report to what might require hours of support work with little or no sleep. The response to my question struck me as thought provoking and just so typical of the Meseths: "Des Plaines, it’s a nice town- we like it. There’s a lot of satisfaction," Marion stated. "If we have to explain it, you wouldn’t understand."
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