'It's A Blessing': Back The Blue K9 Force Treats Arapahoe County Sheriff's Deputies To Thanksgiving Meal
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) - Thanksgiving Day is a day for most people to take a break from work and enjoy a nice meal as a family, but for first responders, it's just another Thursday.
"Thanksgiving officers never know their schedule," said Danielle Lewis.
Danielle and her mother Diane know this well. They run Back the Blue K9 Force, a nonprofit that provides vests and medical treatment to K9 officers.
Diane likes to make sure her local police are treated like family, so every Thanksgiving she makes sure the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Deputies are fed, just like they are her own children.
"Officers and first responders, they give up so much," said Danielle. "They give up their holidays, their spare time and we wanted to be able to pay them back a little bit so they can have a nice meal."
Diane raised money so that deputies can stop by the Golden Corral off of Parker Road to get a quick meal. Sargent Bret Cohn has been a deputy for twenty years and hasn't been at home with his family for many thanksgivings. He's grateful that for the past four years he's been able to have a good meal, thanks to Diane, in the middle of what can be a pretty busy day.
"It's a blessing. It really is. My whole team is working right now," said Sgt. Cohn. "They're going call to call. So it's nice to know that there's people that understand what we do and the breaks that we don't get. And to think of us and take care of us like this on the holidays when we can't be with our families."
The officers trickled in throughout the day Thursday to fill their bellies while Danielle and Diane kept them company. Now they turn their attention toward Christmas so they can feed the deputies all over again.
"It's just so important," said Diane.
Diane will be raising money to buy box lunches for the deputies since everything will be closed on Christmas. Even though Diane is involved with Back the Blue K9 Force, this is a side project for her. She collects donations through her Venmo account. If you want to donate you can call Back the Blue K9 Force at (720) 732-5877 and ask for Diane.
