From the driveway of San Antonio Fire Station #1, Ashley Harris directed about 25 Generations Federal Credit Union employees in their capacity as food delivery volunteers the day before Thanksgiving.
"We're donating 52 turkeys and eight hams to all of the fire and police stations in San Antonio," she said.
The volunteers headed out for all parts of town. The police stations don’t have kitchens, so they received hams.
But Andrew Estrada – Division Chief who’s been a firefighter for 21 years, said the firefighters on duty Thursday would share the duty of roasting the turkeys – probably later in the day – because long baking times are tedious on Thanksgiving Day.
"One of them will have to try to get it done. It's always difficult to do that because you have to put it in the oven and pray that, as you make runs, you get back in time to stop it," he said.
"Typically the early mornings are really busy. People are cooking and they're overloading their kitchens. They're overloading electrical outlets. The stoves have too much grease in them. Typically there are a lot of fires on Thanksgiving morning."
Staff Sergeant Rodney Hubbard volunteered his time from the Texas State Guard to help load turkeys into the volunteers' vehicles for delivery. He also is coordinating Thanksgiving visits to the fire stations for up to 100 basic trainees from Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.
"We'll take them to the fire stations for a day of talking, chatting with firefighters, watching football games, eating turkeys, playing video games - basically a day to relax without being under the gun, so to speak," Hubbard said.
Harris said the tribute to the city's public servants is particularly meaningful for the credit union.
"Generations was actually founded by fire and city and police employees in 1940," Harris said. "So donating turkeys to every fire and police station is just our way of saying thanks because they have to give up their holidays to protect our families."
"That's part of the gig," Estrada said.
"The fire department is a calling. That's just one of those things. I'm a second-generation firefighter. My brother, my father, two uncles, three cousins were all firefighters," he said. "But you really enjoy helping people and you never know what you're going to see when you come to work."
