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Sheriff: Thoughts on the past few days.
The following is shared by permission from Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole who posted this on his personal Facebook page:
The support this community has shown our office and myself has been truly amazing. Whether you brought out ice cream, pizza, water, ham dinners, Gatorade, peanuts, etc. what really struck me was the sadness and gratitude in your eyes. Thank you all for EVERYTHING!!!
The efforts of EMS, fire, DNR, USCG, Forest Service…wow, just wow. Personnel literally sweated through their tee-shirts and uniforms multiple times a day.
Fellow Sheriffs—John O’Hagan, Steve Kempker, Craig Mast, LPD Chief Barnett, and MSP Command—without hesitation or question you guys were there to help with manpower, equipment and guidance. Your commitment to, not only your communities, but ours is so appreciated.
To those really making the decisions in the Command Center; D, O, Chop, Lizard, Matt and others—they made the calls, I just signed off.
To the scores of you who shot me a text, email or call; thanks for the kind words and encouragement. Bob Wilson, Kevin Grace, Kevin Leavitt and Scott Strait..you guys are the best!
None of you know, but during these horrible events MCSO deputies still took 187 calls including 18 crashes (1 critical), OD’s, child custody calls, alarms, domestics, civil standbys, in one night alone booked 6 in to the jail and so on and so forth. During Thursday drowning one of our guys even drove to the victim’s Whiskey Creek cabin and brought the family dog to the State Park for the children and a detective stayed with the family.
Lastly, the families directly affected were way too kind to me. I sat Monday afternoon with grandma and teenage family members of the young man. Remarkable and grateful people. So kind. The daughter and son of the Thursday drowning (maybe 10 or 11 years old) actually came up to me at the command center and shook my hand. No lie.
We all think the most beautiful part of our area is the sunsets and low Lakers out in the lake. It’s not, it’s people and those we call friends.
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