We've all heard it said that "not all heroes wear capes", but lately more of our heroes are wearing masks. While social distancing measures, and stay-at-home orders have been implemented in our county, many our first responders have remained in their jobs, many taking on active roles in their communities — in situations where they risk contracting coronavirus themselves.  While traffic accidents are lower than normal, domestic disturbances are on a rise.  While answering a call for a domestic disturbance is often an extremely dangerous situation, the additional risk of being exposed to an invisible enemy makes the job of a police officer even more hazardous.  Jails and prisons do not lend themselves easily to social distancing and for deputies working at the Cobb County Adult Detention Facility, there is more risk to their health and even that of their families, than ever before.  
While there is little we can do to protect the health of the men and women in our Department of Public Safety, we can certainly let them know how much the community they serve appreciates them and acknowledge the risks they are taking to keep us safe.  
Thanks to the generosity of our donors, Blue Thanksgiving has been busy delivering meals and other needed items to our public safety officers.  We have delivered meals to officers, deputies, firefighters and 911 call center operators in a number of locations.  Additionally, face masks and individual bottles of hand sanitizer have been delivered to these men and women, and there are plans already in place to continue this effort and to include many more agencies, precincts, fire stations, call centers and EMTs, over the next few weeks.  As of today, April 25th, 1000 face masks and approximately 300 bottles of hand sanitizer have been delivered, with more to follow.  Meals are being purchased from local owned restaurants, in an effort to support those businesses while continuing to support our officers.
While we'd love to share more photos with you, it is always our intent to protect the privacy of all our officers, and we often refrain from taking photographs.  Having stated that, we do have a social media presence and if you would like to see what we're doing on a daily basis, we invite you to follow us at https://www.facebook.com/bluethanksgiving/.  Please "like", "share" and follow us.  We rely on donations to enable us to continue our work and hope you will join in with us in showing these heroes that we all stand behind them!  
God bless and protect you and yours and may He keep our public safety officers healthy.