On Thanksgiving Day, while most of us celebrate with food and family, it’s business as usual at Station 48. There, at Northwest Highway near Plano Road, firefighters put in 24-hour shifts just as they always do. They spend the morning polishing equipment, practicing procedures and triple-checking gear. They know the phone could ring at any time.
A call comes in about mid-day. “It’s coming,” says the voice on the phone. The firefighters turn to each other and nod. They’re ready.
In an instant, they’re outside, where they find cars, parents and kids everywhere. They spring into action.
“Jones, take care of the kids,” yells the chief. “Watkins, grab the soft drinks. I’ll take the turkey, and Baker, you get the napkins and silverware.”
Just like last year and the year before, our neighborhood firefighters are being treated to a huge Thanksgiving meal, with a heaping helping of community support on the side. It’s all courtesy of Crime Watch 1078, a neighborhood group that includes more than 1,300 homes in the eastern portion of Lake Highlands.
Resident Hazel Sandlin started the tradition in 2001, in a time when appreciation for firefighters and police officers was at an all-time high. Since then, support for the meal has become even stronger.
“Last year we had more than the year before,” Sandlin says. “For each station, we had five pies, three cakes, seven or eight salads, four or five veggies, appetizers, drinks and every bread you can imagine. One lady made 16 loaves of banana nut bread.”
The group took full meals to Station 48 and Station 57 on Audelia. And they still had so many pies and cakes, they took dessert to a couple of more stations on Greenville.
Why do Sandlin and her neighbors go to all that effort during a time that’s already one of the most hectic of the year? To share with their families and friends what they feel is the real purpose of holidays.
“I wanted our son Daniel, who’s 6, to share in the community feel, because we didn’t have a big family coming in,” she says. “It’s really a good thing, especially for kids, to see their parents offering hospitality and their time. We teach our kids about Indians and Pilgrims, and now it’s resident and firefighter helping each other out.”
Still, organizing the whole thing can be quite a job. Not only does Sandlin coordinate who’s making what, she also offers her house as a central drop-off station.
“I usually have two days of people dropping by bringing food,” she says. “It can be nonstop, ’til 10 o’clock at night. It’s a fun and social thing. That’s one way I’ve gotten to know so many people in the neighborhood.”
Everyone would have understood if Sandlin hadn’t wanted to lead the effort this year. After all, in August she was prescribed complete bed rest until the birth of her second child in October.
But that didn’t change her plans for the meal; it just made her get started earlier. She had friends distribute sign-up sheets, and by mid-September already had more than 20 names down.
Among them is Diane Faller and her three kids, 14-year-old Anthony, 12-year-old Brittany and 9-year-old Andrew. Faller first became involved last year, for reasons similar to Sandlin’s: She wanted her kids to experience the sense of community that comes from giving.
“This is our area, and we shouldn’t take for granted what these people do for us,” she says. “Somebody has to be out there protecting us while we’re enjoying the holiday.”
Faller signed them up to cook a turkey, dressing and dessert last year, which gave the family plenty of opportunity to work together.
“We started planning a week in advance, because there were lots of decisions to make. Should we do white gravy or dark? Stuffing inside or out of the turkey? Those kinds of things, and they all got involved.”
Then came the real adventure, cooking two Thanksgiving meals, one for themselves and the other for firefighters they’d never met.
“It was a lot of fun,” she says. “All four of us were in the kitchen together, and it looked like a serving line. One person had the ingredients, one stirred, one would put it in the Tupperware; we all had jobs, and we’d just pass it down the line.”
Once the meal was cooked, the family piled in the car to deliver it.
“The kids got to visit with the firefighters, to do a tour and see the trucks and everything. They had fun.”
And what do the firefighters think?
“It’s wonderful,” says Lt. Jennifer Freeman, a firefighter for 10 years. “It’s great because we don’t have to cook, but also it really makes you feel kinda warm and fuzzy.”
Freeman first witnessed the group’s generosity last year.
“They brought in a heck of a feast,” she recalls. “It just kept coming and coming.”
Some firefighters had their families come eat with them, to have the closest thing possible to a holiday while still on the job. Even then, there was more than enough food.
“We called around to see who hadn’t had anything delivered and took some to another station,” Freeman says.
Meeting the neighbors and showing kids around the station adds to the fun.
“They really like to see the truck, and we show them the lights and some of the apparatus,” she says of the children.
“It helps a lot,” she adds. “It makes it a little less lonely.”
The community spirit the firefighters feel is nothing new to the neighborhood residents, who also bake sweets for police officers on Christmas Day and run a neighborhood pet watch.
“With us all knowing each other, it’s like a big family,” Faller says. “I never knew anything like this before moving here. Everybody wants to watch out for each other’s kids and animals. It makes a huge difference.”
That difference is why Faller is in the neighborhood to stay.
“We’d never move,” she says. “There’s no reason to, because it’s home. You’re not gonna find anything better.”
