“That was a cooking incident. I’m not counting that one. The bananas Foster was still good, and I’m still convincing myself the crunchy topping was toasted coconut and not his red eyebrows.”
His comments brought lots of laughter, and playful ribbing rose among the group.
“Yeah. Yeah, well, those things happen. But tonight is for serious business. First of all, over seventy percent of fire stations across our country are staffed entirely by volunteers. For a county the size of ours, it’s an honor that we have support from our county to staff a small but mighty and dependable team. But these bays are darn near full of people.” He swallowed hard, controlling the emotion threatening to turn his words to a tremble. “Volunteers. You are critical to this equation. We don’t take any of you for granted. Even those who may have only come out on a very limited basis. You went through the training and you are here for us. Thank you.”
He clapped his hands together, and everyone joined in.
“Thanksgiving is this week. You know, I don’t remember a single year that we didn’t have an incident on Thanksgiving Day. Every fire and rescue is important, but those around the holidays just seem to be harder to take. We need to keep our community on their toes. Be sure to pass on safety information to family, friends, your church pastors, anyone who you talk to. The more knowledge and awareness we can raise, the better off we’ll all be. We’ll be hosting a Thanksgiving dinner here on Thanksgiving Day. Pop in and out as you like. The Trout and Snout is providing all the side dishes, and a big thank-you to the Newton brothers for bringing the barbecue tonight and always. Despite the lovingnickname of the Pig Newtons, they will be smoking turkeys on Thanksgiving for us.”
“Tom is a turkey, so that sort of works,” someone said.
Tucker shook his head. It was like a family reunion every time they got together. “Any families you know of who might need any assistance, give Tommy the name and addresses. Anything we don’t consume, we’ll be sure gets into the right folk’s hands that evening.”
Tommy held his clipboard over his head. “See me, or there’s another sign-up sheet over on the bulletin board.”
Tucker went through the rest of the agenda. Finally, with all the business at hand done, he picked up the box he’d placed near the mic earlier.
“Now, my favorite part. Another thank-you letter, and it came with this huge box of cookies. Think y’all can quietly pass this around while I read it?” He handed the cookie box off to someone and it started moving around the room.
“It turns out Mrs. Davenport works for the bakery over in Galax. Her family made these. They are almost too pretty to eat.”
“No such thing as a cookie too pretty to eat.” Luke’s voice rose above the others as he reached for the red and white candy-cane-shaped cookie on the top.
“Coming in,” said Bob, as the decorated Christmas tree cookie caught his eye.
And then it was a free-for-all of hands and elbows until the box was down to a single sparse row of cookies.
Tucker lifted a card in the air. “This is from the Davenports. You’ll remember we got called out in the wee hours of the morning on this one about two months ago when that thunderstorm plowed through here. Lightning struck their house.”
Heads nodded.
“Keep in mind whether you were there that day or not, you are part of this team and these thanks go to every single person in this building. Listen up.”
Tucker pulled the card out and began reading it.
Dear Men and Women of our Chestnut Ridge Fire Department,
We want to take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude for all of your efforts during the recent house fire at our home. You were all incredible and we are forever grateful.
We never imagined we’d experience such a tragedy and the thought of losing our home and everything in it was absolutely devastating. However, the quick response and efficient actions of your team contained the fire and minimized the damage.
We were impressed by the professionalism and compassion of each one of you. Seeing how you worked together as a team and put your lives at risk for the safety and well-being of our family was truly inspiring.
We know that we will never be able to fully express the depth of our gratitude. Our family will forever be indebted to you for your bravery, dedication, and commitment to serving our community.
We hope that our small words of thanks will offer you some sense of the appreciation that we feel. We made these Christmas cookies for you as a small token of our appreciation.
Again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
We are forever grateful,
The Davenports
“Thank you for your service.” Tucker was as proud of them and the work they did together as he could imagine any father would be of his children. “Well done. We make a difference.”
“He’s getting all mushy up there. See. Happens to the best of us.”
The voice came from the middle of the crowd, and as folks stepped away, Tucker spotted who had yelled that. The old fire chief who had retired and promoted Tucker into the position.
