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S.F. teen dies in Nepal plane crash

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Message: If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/59167/full/59167/s.f.-teen-dies-in-nepal-plane-crash/ S.F. teen dies in Nepal plane crash Thursday, September 2, 2010 | by dan pine Before heading for Nepal this past June, Kendra Fallon packed crayons. Lots of crayons. She figured the children in the Himalayan orphanage, where she had volunteered for the summer, would need them. It was just like her to bring a little color into the lives of others. <div class="capDivLeft" style="width: 126px;"><img alt="BAFallon, Kendra" class="left" height="194" src="/images/uploads/y_photos_2010/q09_03_10/BAFallon, Kendra.jpg" title="Kendra Fallon" width="126" /> <div class="caption">Kendra Fallon</div> </div> Kendra, just shy of her 19th birthday, died Aug. 23 in the crash of a 15-seat Agni Air plane destined for Lukla, a popular hiking region not far from Mount Everest. All 14 people on board, including four Americans, perished. The San Francisco native left behind devastated family and friends, including many in the Jewish community. Growing up in San Francisco’s Or Shalom Jewish Community, Kendra wore her Jewish identity like a badge of honor. She also wielded it as a lance to right the wrongs she saw in the world. “I’m just shattered at the loss to the world and the Jewish community,” said her father, Howard Fallon. “She had that fire, but she was sweet, and people like that can have a big impact.” Some of that impact was felt at her high school, Saint Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, from which she graduated two years ago. She served as president of the environmental club and led a campus Jewish-Arab student dialogue group. She once stood before hundreds of fellow students, having earned a top spot in the school’s oratory contest, to argue against the animal cruelty rampant on industrial farms. Her research convinced her, and her speech convinced others, to become vegetarians. Some of her impact was felt on the soccer field. Kendra was a fierce competitor in the game, having played on a few teams coached by her father. But mostly, she impacted people one-on-one with her kindness and respect. “For someone her age, people think you have to be much older to make a difference,” said her sister, Shane Fallon, 21, a premed student at U.C. San Diego. “She realized she didn’t have to wait.” Shane Fallon remembers her sister as someone who “wanted everything to be fair.” That extended to her stuffed Beanie Babies when Kendra was a child. “She had a list of her Beanie Babies,” Shane added, “and she checked off who would sleep in her bed each night, making sure they all got their turn.” Thanks to their father and mother, Julee Pygin, the sisters grew up steeped in Judaism, especially the value of repairing the world. “She was incredibly bright and talented,” remembered Rabbi Pamela Frydman Baugh, who served as Or Shalom rabbi while Kendra attended. “She was fun-loving with her friends, and incredibly respectful of adults. At first I thought it was her shyness, but... I realized she was just waiting to give others a chance.” For her bat mitzvah in 2004, Kendra created a worship service booklet. On it she wrote the words in her own hand, “Peace is achieved by all, but peace begins with one. Pray for peace.” The family’s peace was shattered in 2008 when Kendra’s mother died of cancer after a long illness. “Family was incredibly important to her,” Baugh noted. “At the same time, she did not let tragedy box her in.” That meant dreaming big. Like her sister, Kendra chose to attend U.C. San Diego and get on a premed track. But before she finished her freshman year, she had begun making plans to work in a Nepalese orphanage. “She wanted to work with kids,” said her father. “These are children that parents can’t afford to feed. Her job was to entertain the kids. I was filled with trepidation, but she was really determined.” She spent this summer trekking about the Himalayan lowlands, working in the orphanage and blogging. Calls home two days before her death convinced her family that Kendra was blossoming. “It was obvious that the trip was healing her,” Fallon added. “She was maturing, changing and growing. [Her sister and I] talked the next day, impressed by how much she had changed, how much we were looking forward to seeing her.” That was not to be. Her sister says she will think of Kendra every day for the rest of her life. “I wouldn’t say she was very religious, but as a Jew for her it was about giving back to the world,” Shane said. “I always thought, being her older sister, she looks up to me. Now I realize how much I looked up to her and how proud I was.” The family is planning a Bay Area memorial for Kendra in late November.

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