Crothersville FFA members serve breakfast to first responders on Patriot Day

0

CROTHERSVILLE

Seventeen years ago, Christopher Cooper had just sat down with his fourth-grade classmates to start a day of learning at Crothersville Elementary School.

As the teacher was talking to the students, an announcement came over the intercom, and she turned on the television.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

Click here to purchase photos from this gallery

They all were in disbelief learning terrorists crashed two hijacked planes into the World Trade Center buildings in New York City. Then, later in the morning, planes crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

“We just watched the TV the rest of the day, and that’s all we did,” Cooper said. “You had an idea what was going on. You didn’t know why or anything like that. You just kind of sat there just gawking at this TV like, ‘What are we watching right now?’ because it was something you would see in a movie.”

On Tuesday morning, the 17th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Cooper found himself back at the school but this time attending a breakfast prepared by the FFA chapter for local first responders.

He has worked full time for the Crothersville Police Department since February 2016, now serving as the assistant police chief, and he is a firefighter with the Crothersville-Vernon Township Volunteer Fire Department.

He also has a military background, having joined the U.S. Navy eight months after graduating from Seymour High School in 2010 and served four years of active duty with the military police in Okinawa, Japan.

After the 2001 attacks, many Americans were inspired to join a fire or police department, start a job in the medical field or enter the military. Cooper did three of those things.

“I believe it was one of the deciding factors as to why I do this now,” he said of seeing first responders and members of the military jump into action the day of the attacks and after.

“Just the fact of helping people, whether it be a small incident or something as drastic as that, it has an impact on people everywhere,” Cooper said.

Earlier this year, the Crothersville-Vernon Township Volunteer Fire Department retired No. 343, which is the number of firefighters and other personnel with the New York City Fire Department that lost their lives Sept, 11, 2001.

“We all came together as a department and decided that nobody needs that number,” Cooper said. “We used to give that to the trainees at the fire department until they became a full-time member, and their number would change to a lower one. We all just kind of sat there and thought, ‘That’s too sacred to give out. Nobody needs it.’”

Also attending Tuesday’s breakfast were Fire Chief Charles Densford, Deputy Fire Chief Ben Spencer and firefighters Brian Clouse and Donald Crater.

Crater said the terrorist attacks 17 years ago made him rethink what he was doing in life.

“I started looking for more fulfilling things because you don’t want to waste time anywhere because if you’re holding a place and thinking it will get better later, you may not have a later to get better,” he said. “You see these things happening, and it’s like, ‘I need to start changing for the better now.’”

All of the first responders appreciated the FFA members and adviser Linda Myers for offering the breakfast for the second year in a row.

“I missed it last year, and I couldn’t imagine not coming this year,” Crater said. “Any time Linda does anything for us, the quality is always amazing. She puts so much time and effort into doing something for us as a group. Even when we’ve had incidents, she has shown up with food. As long as we have good people like her around, we’ll eat her food.”

Crater said it’s also a good opportunity for the FFA members to interact with the first responders. They do that a lot throughout the year, including teaching fire safety during fire prevention week, helping with safety training and assisting with delivering items for the annual toy and food drive at Christmastime.

“There are a lot of times when fire people or police are around, it’s a chaotic situation, and sometimes, you don’t look at them like real individuals,” Crater said. “It’s good for the kids to see, ‘If I see Cooper and he’s a real person, if I see Ben or Charlie, I know I can talk to them because they are not just here in a bad situation.’ A lot of them know us, but some of them don’t, so any time they get to see us, it’s a good thing.”

Cooper said it makes him feel better about the community knowing that the students are there to support first responders.

“They might see us one day as this, but they know when we come here, we’re plain Jane people just like they are,” he said.

Juniors Cami Keasler and Rebekah Cook were among the FFA members helping prepare and serve the food and drinks Tuesday morning.

“Just to give back to them for everything they do for us,” Cook said of why the FFA members wanted to do the breakfast again this year. “I just like the fact that we’re helping people out and giving back, and they help us out.”

Keasler said she appreciates everything the first responders do for the community.

“It’s just a great thing to help and give back for everything they do,” she said. “They do a lot of stuff for us.”

No posts to display