On the first day of Christmas . . .
Don’t worry. There are no partridges in pear trees to play on repeat in your head with these 12 Days of Christmas. Instead, it’s something that the Quitman Police Department decided to do over the Christmas season to show appreciation to the community they serve. They wanted to bring a little cheer and show everyone how much they care, so they decided to do the 12 Days of Appreciation for Christmas.
“The way we look at it, Christmas is a season for gratitude, for showing love, and for giving and giving back,” explained Quitman Assistant Chief Edwin Laws. “In a small city like Quitman, it’s the people of the community itself that actually make the biggest difference—the ones who go out and quietly serve every day, who work faithfully, who serve and treat their neighbors as their own family. Those are the ones who make the biggest difference. It was our way of showing them our appreciation and giving them a thank you for what they do and to let them know that what they’re doing every single day is not going unnoticed. They are the backbone of Quitman. If is wasn’t for what they do every single day, then Quitman wouldn’t be what it is and Clarke County as a whole wouldn’t be what it is. It was just our small, little way of showing our appreciation and giving them that public appreciation that they deserve. For the most part, everyone is humble, but it does feel good to get a thank you and pat on the back every now and then. I’m not from Quitman, but from day one since I’ve been here, I was welcomed as if I’ve been part of Quitman all my life. Everyone here has made me feel as if I’m family and that I’m home, so it was fun to get out and talk to everyone in the community. We even had people suggest people. There’s no way we could show all the appreciation of the people in Quitman in 12 days, but it was fun getting out and meeting people and understanding what they do and how they impact the community.”
Each of the 12 days before Christmas, they posted a photo and explanation of appreciation. The following are what they had to say for the 12 Days of Appreciation:
