MEMPHIS, TN— While you eat, drink, and spend time with your love ones on this holiday police officers and firefighters are hard at work. Serving and protecting, in what is too often a thankless job, but not tonight. Midtowners dropped off all sorts of goodies. They wanted to share some holiday cheer with our emergency responders and say thank you to those who keep us safe from harm everyday. Every Christmas Eve for the past 30 years this has become a tradition.
"It's a time where we appreciate them but we also want to share the holidays with them rather than them just having to bail us out when something bad happens,” said Cooper Young Community Association President June Hurt.
That's when most people see law enforcement: at work, protecting you and sometimes sacrificing their lives for us like Officer Martoiya Lang, a mother of 4. Lang was killed while trying to take drugs off the streets. Always risking their lives for us are Memphis firefighters who battle blazes too often set by arsonists. Residents bagging up a few treats on Christmas Eve really means a lot to police and fire crews working this holiday.
"Sometimes people will make something that is so tasty the cops will actually go by their house and knock on the door and say thank you personally and say, 'we loved your cookies, we loved your brownies.' We've had fire trucks come through and honk at people's houses, waving at them too. So they definitely appreciate it,” said Hurt.
Cooper Young residents plan to continue this long tradition and volunteer their time to deliver a tasty "thank you" to Memphis Police and Firefighters.
“It's just a great thing. The police drive around the neighborhood to keep us safe so it's just a little nice thing to do for them,” said a volunteer Judy Shellabarger.
We tried interviewing some of those police officers and firefighters but they were not allowed to comment on camera but they did tell us the bagged goodies brighten their day and they really appreciate what the community does for them.
