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There will be days (like today) that May 19th is on a Sunday. Since many of us have plans that day that take priority, and most of the front desk staff at the stations have the day off, it may be a little difficult making your thank you deliveries. There are solutions though. The most common one is to deliver another day. Since National Thank You Day is intended to start a daily habit, deliveries do not have to always occur on May 19th.

Sliding cards under the front door has been done (as demonstrated below ;-) . Sending cards in the mail, or leaving them on the doorstep or tied to the door knob works as well. Just don’t leave them anywhere they can get wet, melt or interfere with any walkway.

Sending them in the mail or delivery on another day is highly recommended! Let’s keep it fun!

IMG00226-20100519-1643

National Thank You Day FlyerMay 19th is here! Not only is it National Thank You Day to Honor First Responders, it’s also the start of National EMS week! We just wrapped up National Police Week and Armed Forces Day was also yesterday. May is a month that really gives us the chance to take a look at who all of these people are and what they have chosen to do for us. Be it overseas or right here in our home towns.

Let’s remember all of them every day, but take a moment today to thank every First Responder out there.
*****

Now, pull your 2014 calendars out and make notes in the month of May for:

Armed Forces Day – Thank all military personnel for service and support of our country.
3rd Saturday of May
http://www.defense.gov/afd/

National Police Week – To honor those that have lost their lives in the line of duty.
Week of May 15th
http://www.policeweek.org/
http://www.copsalive.com/things-you-should-know-about-national-police-week-2013/

National Thank You Day to Honor First Responders – To honor every First Responder for what they do.
May 19th
https://www.facebook.com/NationalThankYouDay

National EMS Week – To learn who they are and what they do.
3rd week of May
http://www.acep.org/_EMS-Week-Microsofte/EMS-Week-History/
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090409202207AARqcjS

And don’t forget October!
Fire Prevention Week – To learn fire safety and prevention. Teaching us to be safe is just another wonderful thing Fire Fighters do.
Week of October 9th
http://www.nfpa.org/categoryList.asp?categoryID=2017&URL=Safety%20Information/Fire%20Prevention%20Week%202010&cookie%5Ftest=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Prevention_Week

Search And Rescue doesn’t have their own week yet, and since we all need to learn about who they are and what they do, let’s spend the time to learn about them and thank them when we can.

National Police Week begins tomorrow, May 12th.

Although thanking them should be a daily activity, honoring those that have fallen in the line of duty deserve a special week of respect. National Police Week really brings home what these amazing people have decided to stand up to as they serve and protect us all.

Any activities planned to acknowledge all First Responders should start now.

http://nationalpoliceweek.com/
http://www.nationalcops.org/npwhistory.htm
http://policeweek.org/index.html

#9 – feel good story like showing gratitude to First Responders everywhere is the bright spot they love to have to show a balance with everything else they report. Filming you in action or showing pictures of any of the activities you do, is just the type of cheerful story they love to present!

Let them know when and where you’ll be as you present cards, deliver pizza, throw parties, hang posters, etc.
Notify every local (or even national) newspaper, TV news, etc. that you can think of!

Not only does this create a chance to become famous yourselves ;-) , it also lets many more know about what this day is all about. It keeps the day growing!

Getting National Thank You Day to Honor First Responders in papers and on TV everywhere is a very good thing to do!

A heartfelt and genuine message completes the purpose of National Thank You Day to Honor First Responders.

Think about the thanks you receive when you give a gift, do something nice, get a job done, and many other things you do. If it’s just a generic thank you said in a monotone voice, or that’s preprinted on a card, it doesn’t really deliver the communication that’s intended.

It’s a habit that should carry on through any appreciation day you participate in. Teachers, Military, Mothers, Fathers, etc. There is someone to officially appreciate almost every day of the year. Showing appreciation doesn’t even have to wait for an official day.

(check here for many other days to show awareness and appreciation: http://www.epromos.com/education/calendars/)

When you do say thank you in a card or letter and if the thank you message is a heartfelt one, anyone reading it will actually feel it. Make your cards and letters as beautiful and creative as you can. Have lots of fun doing it! But, adding a personal note of thanks from your heart, makes a big difference.

Think about the purpose of the day. The purpose of National Thank You Day is to let an amazing group of people know that we know they are there and really appreciate what they do.

Think about what they do. Really put yourself in their shoes and look at what they do through their eyes. It’s a habit we all should get into for everyone in our lives, but the purpose of this day is to see what Fire Fighters, Police Officers, Emergency Medical Technicians, and Search And Rescue teams have decided to face to help all of us. We want to show them we care about what they go through to help us all.

None of us like being taken for granted. We all appreciate being acknowledged for what we have done. Let’s do the same for First Responders, and make the thanks a heartfelt one.

Examples are popping up in many places of an “anti-police” point of view. An angry group of very small minded people are trying to spread that point of view to others. With National Thank You Day to Honor First Responders around the corner, this angry point of view needs to be addressed.

The police are very brave and dedicated people that have a pretty tough job to do, and they do it quite well.

Yes, there are police out there that don’t do the right thing, and do break the rules they are supposed to enforce.

But, if you really look around you, you’ll see examples of people out there in every line of work, that are breaking rules, and should be taken off the job. The cook that spits on your burger before it’s served, the cashier that shortchanges every customer, and the mechanic that breaks a small part so you need to come back soon to pay for an additional repair. We hear about them but we still eat out, go shopping, and get our stuff repaired. We don’t hate every cook, cashier, and mechanic when we hear about the few that have bad behavior. We are smarter than that.

Let’s not let these losers in every line of work tell us what to think about the rest of them in that line of work.

If you are on facebook, look up The Whole Truth Project. Andrew Hale put it very simply. “Focus on all the good apples, not the few bad apples!”

Let’s push the “bad apples” in the bunch, that have the attitudes and actions that make them the bad apples, aside and thank the large majority of the good apples. The dedicated people that far outnumber those very few bad apples.

The police are people just like any of us. Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, dads, moms, and more, who have decided to do what many of us would rather not. All of them deserve our thanks.

Please keep in mind that anyone who decides to put themselves through everything they need to, to be there for the rest of us, deserves our utmost respect. Let’s let them know that we know they’ve got our back, and we are thankful for that.

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