White County Emergency Appreciation Day Building Community Connection

Emergency Services Appreciation Day in White County will give the community the chance to build relationships Friday.

The July 30 event is being put on by American Legion Post 99 and the White County Anti-Drug Coalition. Post Commander Ron Lapierre said agencies from the local rescue squad to overdose prevention specialists will be in attendance at White County Middle School.

“We’re going to have a couple fire trucks there, state police will be there and they’ll have different areas in the middle school, in the front yard,” Lapierre said. “People can just come and talk to them to see what they do. The state police are bringing a couple things, suicide prevention is bringing some stuff, the sheriff is bringing a couple things. Just so people can interact with our officers and our EMS.”

Lapierre said there was an emphasis on having all local agencies that protect and serve the community. Lapierre said the goal is to highlight all the positives emergency services bring into peoples lives.

“People don’t realize until its an emergency… they don’t even think about it, the only time they do is like, ‘oh here’s the state police giving me a ticket,” Lapierre said. “They don’t realize the other side of them, they’re there to serve the community. So I wanted to emphasize to the directors of the groups, I emphasized to them you need to come and meet these people and say, ‘hey this is what we do, this is what we offer.”

He said this could be an opportunity for groups like schools to connect with emergency services to set up individual education programs. Lapierre said there can be a disconnect between residents and first responders, that while they take on heroic acts, they are still human like everyone.

“Most people are running out of the building, while these firemen are running into the building,” Lapierre said. “Same thing with the police, same thing with the EMS. They put themselves in harms way all the time and people don’t seem to bat an eye. So I said we need to get something going to get people to start talking to them.”

Lapierre said on everyday, not just July 30, people can show their appreciation just by thanking an emergency worker for their service. The appreciation day is set for 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM at White County Middle School.