Our local holiday heroes: emergencies don’t stop
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – Across the community of south central Kentucky, our first responders are out serving the public come rain or shine.
As we all gear up for Christmas, family members of those in emergency services are making alternative plans and changes to their schedules to fit their loved ones into holiday plans. Talking with emergency service workers across the viewing area, News 40 gathered some sentiments about being on call for the holiday season.
Tracy Tabor, who works for the Med Center of Scottsville, said that “it’s a hard time to be away from family, but we knew what it would be when we went into the field.”
Trooper Daniel Priddy with the Kentucky State Police said to News 40, “I know people think it’s hard to work through the holidays, but when you’re helping people, it makes it all worth it. I wouldn’t trade this job for anything in the world.”
When asking two sergeants at the Allen County Sheriff’s Office about how it impacts their family, Atkins and Lovett, who said, “You know, we first started this job, and you leave the house on a holiday event or a birthday or something, and they’re kind of beside themselves, and now you go out the door, and it’s like clockwork now. ‘We’ll see you later’ is what they usually say. It’s not as heartbreaking now, unfortunately, the family is kind of used to it and stuff.”
Stephen Stratton, the sheriff serving Logan County, told News 40 that law enforcement is a tight family, with regard to holidays there are deputies on the force that don’t mind to switch with deputies who are older or have young kids.
Nick Atkins, a Bowling Green firefighter, said in his interview that this holiday season, he’s had to work Thanksgiving and will be working Christmas. To try to keep the family together, he wrote Santa Claus asking him to stop by his house early so he could be there to open presents in the morning then head off to work.
But all in all, all of these workers show their love for their job and how they couldn’t see themselves doing anything else but serving their south central Kentucky communities.
