People who go into first responder jobs have big hearts. It’s true! We all just really want to help people, and this job is somewhere you can do about it. It feels good to be helpful. But at the end of the day, it’s still a job, and we have to walk away sometimes. Even when it feels like we didn’t have enough time to finish taking care of the people we serve.
That’s how Southport Cares came to be. “We see people who are hurting every day on calls and we came up with this idea to give back to our community and let people know that Southport does care about what’s going on in their lives,” says Southport Fire Chief Charles Drew.
We launched Southport Cares in late January 2020. At first, our members were all first responders. We found our first neighbor in need when we responded to a home with a senior couple to replace a smoke detector and realized they were short on food and necessities due to some short-term funding issues.
Our crew loaded up on a few things they needed as well as some items for future needs – so they could get through the next few days. We added some flowers to bring in a little beauty and let them know the Southport Community was there for them in their time of need.
It feels great to be able to give a helping hand, so we kept on doing it. Barely a month after we got started, the state was locked down for the COVID pandemic, and we were able to truly open our hearts to the community…
