It is no
small event, either. Everyone who has
any contact working with the City was invited.
That included not just the fire and police departments, but also streets
and water and inspectors and garbage and courts. Oh, and I guess I should mention the city
manager and mayor (They started the whole thing off with their few words each) and
several city council members. You can
see how the numbers just keep mounting and mounting. And as far as the fire department was
concerned, only one shift was involved.
And that brings up another story of fire department family
cooperation. Fire crews from Santa Fe
and Jamaica Beach agreed to stand watch for two hours or so that all the
Galveston crews could attend the function.
We appreciate the assistance, guys.
The
event itself is pretty much a massive meal.
Massive in the sense of serving a mass of people, yes. But also in the amount of food they put on
each plate. Mounds of turkey and ham and
dressing and mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans, topped off with a
dessert and a drink. Seems to me that it
would be difficult to serve that much turkey and dressing and not have it dry
out and all pasty, but this was good stuff.
If I understood correctly, the Smecca family had something to do with
providing the food, and it was outstanding.
Hats off to them.
As far
as those attending were concerned, there were three things to look forward
to. First was the food, of course. Then came the city service pins. The city awards service pins for at least every
five years someone works. Several of the
fire fighters received pins of varying years.
And most of them even had their names spelled correctly (Sorry, “Byron”
Lee). The final and probably most
anticipated part of the whole affair was the door prizes. Literally hundreds of door prizes from local
businesses had either been donated or purchased. Each person drew a slip of paper as he
entered the room. Many of them were
instant winners of random things. I saw
one guys walk out with a very nice nail gun.
Also on the table were an igloo cooler, numerous car detail kits, manicure
kits, and gift cards to local establishments.
If you didn’t win right away you could put your name in the Try Again
box, and when everything was done, about 50 more prizes were given away. Pretty impressive, I guess. Made it fun to see what everyone received,
and it felt sort of Christmassy.
All of
the fire fighters clustered near the door and kept their radios on, just in
case “that” call might come through. The
best I could do was the dispatch ap on my phone, but it was in my pocket, set
to buzz. Just as the event was winding
down, with everyone casually talking and comparing door prizes and enjoying a
final swig of his Pepsi, a fire call came through. Every one of those fire fighters was instantly
on the alert. Their spines
stiffened. Their heads, almost to a man,
cocked to one side – the side closest to their radio. And instinctively, the ones who were still
seated rose to their feet. Didn’t take
long for them to get back to the engines and declare themselves in service. I gotta say … that was the most impressive part of the day. Always on alert. Thank you, Gentlemen.
1 Peter
5:8-9 says, “Be self-controlled and
alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for
someone to devour. Resist him, standing
firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are
undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”
Father,
thank you for guys like fire fighters and police officers who are there to take
care of one aspect of my “alert” needs.
Gives me more energy to focus on being spiritually alert. Protect them and give them strength. Amen.
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