Community support helps first responders push forward

ORONO, Maine — A free coffee at the drive-thru with the flash of a badge. A spray-painted mural dedicated to essential workers. Handwritten thank you cards slipped into unsuspecting hands.

These are just some of the small ways people are showing their appreciation to the essential workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’ve received an overwhelming amount of support from the community,” Chris Baker, deputy chief of the Old Town Fire Department, said. First responders are trained to deal with disasters –– and they have learned to cope with the ongoing pandemic.

But the new COVID-19 reality can be harder for ordinary people to face, and a change in routine can feel like an inconvenience. For others, it can be crippling, said Baker.

“Family stress, work stress — it’s all magnified by not being able to get away from it,” he said.

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The department has experienced an uptick in mental health calls, too. “We’re over our normal call volume,” he said. “We’re just really, really busy.”

For first responders around the state, small gestures of gratitude from the public have a lot of significance, as they attempt to deal with the pandemic’s effects.

“That’s one of the things that keeps us going,” said Baker.

Old Town people have dropped off home-cooked meals for first responders who are working long shifts, donated extra gloves and masks they had at home, and passed along positive messages to show their appreciation for the work being done.

Small businesses, too, have pitched in to support frontline workers in the Penobscot region and beyond. Local restaurants in Orono have regularly donated meals to law enforcement and hospital workers.

In late April, Orono Police officers hand-delivered pizzas from Orono House of Pizza to staff at Eastern Maine Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit as a symbol of their appreciation.

“Big thank you for our frontline ICU EMMC,” the restaurant posted on Facebook above a photo of the hospital staff.

The free meals, coffees and other tokens of gratitude are ways communities around the state are looking out for their own, while paying it forward and encouraging others to do the same.

“We reward them with pizza and you should reward them by staying home and practicing social distancing,” the officers said.