Winterset preschool students thank Greenfield firefighters

The phone rang at the Greenfield fire station last Thursday afternoon. According to Assistant Fire Chief Jack Parrott, that very seldom happens.

Steven McFarland, the department’s training officer, answered it and on the other end was a preschool teacher named Danette Maynes from Winterset. She explained to McFarland that after a difficult stretch Greenfield firefighters have had in responding to fatality accidents and grass fires, the Little Huskies Preschool students had made them gifts to thank them for their many volunteer hours to the community.

Maynes was on the way through Greenfield Thursday and asked McFarland if she could just stop at the station and hand deliver these gifts to the firemen. The firemen were at the station because they had just returned from battling a grass fire.

Parrott describes that the preschool students made dalmations out of paper plates and posters that said thank you on them for the firemen.

On Monday night this week, St. John’s Catholic Church middle school students donated food to the fire department.

“We don’t require a thank you, we don’t get paid. We don’t expect anything, but having something like this, with kids thinking of the big picture, that’s huge,” Parrott said. “It really means a lot.”

Thinking about the big picture is exactly what Maynes and Brotherson try to instill in their students.

They explained to their students that the local firemen are also the dads, uncles and grandpas of the community, and that when stressful emergencies happen, it not only affects those involved but the emergency responders who assist at them.

“When the whole situation happened with the two accidents, we knew that the firefighters have families too and it had to be a struggle for them,” Maynes said.

Brotherson recapped that it was heartwarming to see her students wanting to brighten the lives of these firemen.

“It’s always fun to teach them about gratitude,” Brotherson said. “We do a lot of random acts of kindness. It’s fun when we can pull it full circle and relate it back to things that have impacted our community.”