Every Day is National First Responders Day at Fire Dept. Coffee

We honor them always. Respect them always. Celebrate them every single day of the year.

It’s no secret that every member of the crew at Fire Dept. Coffee has a soft spot in their heart for first responders. Many of us have been first responders. Some still are. The rest of us are eternally grateful for all that first responders do in service of others.

October 28 is National First Responders Day, which means it’s an opportunity for every American to join us in raising our mugs high to the men and women who have dedicated their careers — or their valuable free time — to being there when their community needs them most.

First responders are firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, police officers and others who are trained to be first on the scene of an emergency. They don’t always know what they’ll find, so they are ready for anything.

These are the types of people we like to be around.

How to Thank a First Responder

The first thing to understand about first responders is they don’t do what they do for recognition. Not a single one of them. They do it because it’s in their blood. It’s who they are. It’s not because they are fearless, but rather, because they are selfless.

Of course, it’s natural to want to recognize them and thank them for all they do — especially today.

So the second thing to know about first responders is that they will rarely turn down a free cup of coffee. Also baked goods are generally well received.

At Fire Dept. Coffee, we want to make sure that we are always giving back to the first responder community and that we’re giving our customers an opportunity to do the same. We created the Fire Dept. Coffee Foundation to direct a portion of net profits to benefit ill or injured first responders as well as the organizations that support them.

Some of the funds we’ve raised with the help of our customers has gone to benefit the North Carolina First Responder Peer Support Team or Next Rung, both of which help first responders combat mental health issues with the benefit of peer counseling and professional counseling.

We’ve also worked with the New Jersey Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association to support the the Mark Virag Memorial Cancer Fund, created to honor the NJFMBA’s former sergeant at arms, who lost his battle with cancer in 2015.

That’s just a small fraction of what our foundation has done so far, and it’s because like all the first responders out there, “Service” is one of our core values.

A National Celebration of First Responders

It is a special thing to see first responders receive a national day in their honor. And it’s a relatively new recognition.

A resolution was first introduced in Congress in 2017 for a national day of recognition. A bipartisan resolution finally passed the U.S. Senate in 2019. At the time there were more than 4.6 million people working as professional or volunteer first responders across the country.

That’s an incredible number.

Shortly after National First Responders Day in 2019, the COVID pandemic arrived in the United States and tested first responders and frontline health care professionals like never before.

As usual, they have risen to the challenge over the years that have followed.