Submitted article
Positive Seekers, working with the administration of Mayor Jeff Reser, are pleased to announce that the month of March we will be celebrating and honoring the fine individuals and their supporters who help Bucyrus’ citizens lead safer, healthier, happier lives by holding the first annual Bucyrus Safety Forces Month.
The idea began with the generous donation of large blue outdoor bows from Norton’s Flowers. We thought of our boys in blue, and things mushroomed from there. During March, the blue bows will be hung on light poles along Sandusky Avenue and Mansfield Street. Smaller blue bows, made by the efforts of residents at Heartland Manor of Bucyrus, will be on sale at the Bucyrus Area Chamber of Commerce, the Bucyrus Tourism and Visitors’ Bureau, and the Mayor’s Office. All of the proceeds from the sale of these bows will be placed in a fund for the families of our safety services personnel.
The first week of March will honor our EMS, paramedic, and emergency room personnel. When our lives are in danger from illness or injury, these men and women have one golden hour to turn us around. For their sacrifice and dedication, sometimes as unpaid volunteers, the long hours they spend at work, in high stress situations, dealing with life and death, for their families who have a spouse or a parent who disappears part of the week, every week, without fail, and lives with a pager attached to their hip, we are deeply grateful for Bucyrus’ emergency medical personnel.
The second week of March will honor our firefighters. It takes a special breed of human being to see a burning structure throwing out clouds of toxic gases, and want to run into it, but they know that inside are precious lives, lives for which they assume daily responsibility when they put on their uniforms and their helmets. Some folks even do this work for free! For their willingness to face mortal danger to save the lives of their fellow people, for the worry that must be in the minds of their loved ones knowing the dangers they may face at any moment, and for their steadfast reliability, we are deeply grateful for Bucyrus’ firefighting personnel.
The third week of March will honor our Sheriff and Highway Patrol, as well as the men and women who work to keep our roads safe during inclement weather. These men and women, from dispatchers to officers, work hard not only to keep our roads and our rural areas safe; they are frequently on the front lines dealing with dangers that affect our city. These men and women often face unpredictable, volatile, and hazardous situations. They don’t get snow days. For their willingness to brave uncertain dangers, for their families daily sending off a father or mother, a wife or a husband, a son or a daughter into unknown, dangerous circumstances, we are deeply grateful for Bucyrus’ Sheriff, Highway Patrol, and road safety personnel.
The fourth week of March will honor our police forces. It is an honor to wear the uniform of a police officer, and Bucyrus’ police force serves with a long tradition of pride and distinction. We may not always like them when we run a traffic signal and get a ticket, but we know who to call when there’s a stranger out behind our house at 2:00 a.m. These men carry the sacred task of enforcing the laws that keep our community safe, and they assume great risk to themselves as part of their duties. They are called upon to use good judgment, to be the calm head in an angry crowd, and sometimes, to defend the life of a citizen by putting their own lives in danger. For their willingness to face fearful, dangerous, and even lethal situations in the name of keeping the public peace, for their families who are called upon to support these officers through the challenges they face, we are deeply grateful for Bucyrus’ Police personnel.
Finally, throughout Safety Forces Month, let us never forget the many different volunteer organizations that also support these agencies, as well as their families, and the sacrifices they make in time, effort, and sometimes, their own personal safety in the name of the public good: the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Guardian Angels, the Block Watch Program, our volunteer firefighters and paramedics. We are deeply grateful for these individuals who sacrifice and risk of their own free will.