Cash Express workers say ‘thank you’ to first responders
Published 7:30 pm Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Emily Perkins | Harlan Enterprise
Harlan Cash Express workers joined in on honoring first responders on 9/11 by hand delivering cakes and cards to a variety of departments across the county. Pictured, from left, are Harlan Cash Express Manager Kayla McQueen, assistant manager Lisa Holland, Harlan Police Department officer George Young, assistant manager Josh Boggs and assistant manager Kyle Simpson. Not pictured, is assistant manager Tammi Maggard.
Cash Express workers took cakes and a card around to first responders on 9/11 as a way of saying “thank you” for their dedication and service. Garry McNabb, Cash Express CEO, said first responders are “people willing to respond without question or hesitation when our community needs them.”
“These are men and women willing to make someone else’s emergency or crisis their own and to put their lives on the line doing it,” McNabb said. “If that doesn’t deserve our respect, nothing does.”
McNabb said he doesn’t know exactly when the tradition started but he is glad it did.
“It started out of someone’s caring and appreciative heart and spread from employee to employee and location to location until stores all over Kentucky and Tennessee were involved,” McNabb said.
McNabb added that at one point or another growing up, children dreamed of being police officers or firefighters and now they’ve outgrown their dreams and pursued other things in life.
“As time passes, we tend to take things for granted until some tragedy happens and our attention is drawn to them again,” McNabb said. “I suppose the term ‘first responders’ was around before 9/11, but I can’t remember ever hearing or using it before then. It caught on with me because it succinctly and accurately captures, not only what these public servants do, but it says something about who they are.”
McNabb added the simple gesture of bringing a cake or meal to first responders across the county continued to blossom until it became an annual tradition called Salute to First Responders.
“We value the opportunity to show appreciate to first responders,” McNabb said. “One of our goals is to encourage others in the community to be involved as well.
“Using the anniversary of 9/11 as an opportunity to refresh and rekindle our feelings for first responders is a good thing. It’s a simple but meaningful way to say ‘thank you’ and to salute them.”
For more information on the Cash Express Salute to First Responders, contact Kayla McQueen, manager of the Harlan location, at 606-574-1991.
