GAINESVILLE – Usually when units from the Hall County Sheriff’s Office and the Hall County Fire Department converge on a residence with lights flashing, it’s not good; usually, but not always.
One such exception was at a diminutive house in eastern Hall County on a soggy Christmas Eve-Eve morning.
The flashing red lights from the parked fire trucks and blue lights from the patrol cars seemed to linger in the fog and drizzle of Wednesday morning. On the front porch of the white single-story house 9-year-old Miguel jumped with excitement; to his eyes Santa had just arrived.
Miguel, his mother and his five siblings (aged 15-years to one-month) were about to experience the love of the community.
Miguel’s mother, Lorena, held infant son, Alan, closely and sobbed as fire fighters and deputies brought item after item to her front door from the emergency vehicles parked roadside.
Hall County Public Information Officer Katie Crumley stood in the front yard beneath her umbrella watching the scene unfold. “This is something that happens every year, multiple times every year, especially within our Public Safety Departments.”
“Because they are out and about in the community…they see the needs of the members of this community…they see people who are hurting day in and day out…and they take it upon themselves to respond in some way,” Crumley explained.
And respond they did.
Crumley continued, “What’s unique about this situation is when they stumbled upon this family they realized that the need was greater than it usually is.” That led to the banding together of members of nearby Fire Station 7 with deputies from the Sheriff’s Office and pooling of their resources.
Station 7 Firefighter Hannah Golden said they realized as soon as they visited the family that their needs went far beyond the usual Christmas gifts Fire Station 7 likes to slip beneath the Christmas tree; their needs included the necessities of life.
“We had no idea what to expect when we walked in there,” Golden began. “They did have a stove, it was plugged in incorrectly, so not only was it a fire hazard but they only had one eye of the stove that was actually working. They were using the one eye of the stove as a heat source.”
A motivated Golden got things going at Station 7, raising money from her fellow firefighters and coordinating efforts with the Sheriff’s Office through Deputy Jonathan Jackson.
Jackson said he knew about the family’s situation through mentors and counselors at White Sulphur Elementary School. He realized combining efforts with Station 7 firefighters was the best way to provide for the family.
“As soon as I got here I realized the mother was doing the best she could; she just needed a little bit of help,” Jackson said. That help was more than just some festively wrapped gifts – deputies volunteered their time, sweat equity and construction skills to do work around the aging house during their time off-duty.
“We tore the old floor out in the living room; Budget Carpets donated the carpet for us to come back in,” Jackson said as he began to list the local businesses that donated items. “We’ve actually done some structural work to the home, some interior design work to the home, just trying to get them comfortable,” Jackson added.
Jackson said on numerous occasions he would go to a business in Gainesville to purchase items for the work and be called later to return to the store for his money. The merchants had discovered what deputies and firefighters were doing and insisted on donating the supplies.
A refrigerator, flat screen TV, a washer and dryer, and building supplies soon joined the list of items donated by the community. Jackson said a local contractor wants to install a new HVAC system in the home.
Jackson was quick to add: “It doesn’t end today…we’re all going to continue to come out here and check on them and help them to do things.”
“It’s been a community effort, and I just want to re-emphasize how it’s not just the Sheriff’s Office and the Fire Department – Hall County really came together on this project. People just want to step in and help a fellow resident.”
“It’s very powerful, very powerful,” Jackson said as he watched the children trying on bicycle helmets and being briefed on bike safety by one of his fellow deputies.
Lenora Santos stood quietly to the side, holding her one-month old son. She smiled as I approached and said softly, “I’m blessed. I thank God for everything I have.”
The joy of the season was evident on Pierce Road; the only challenge was trying to tell who was more joyful: those who were being blessed or those doing the blessing. In the end it doesn’t matter; the true meaning of Christmas has sufficient joy for everyone.
