Local students hosts first responders appreciation breakfast ahead of 25th anniversary of 9/11
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AMMON — As the 25th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, local students hosted a breakfast for first responders to thank them for their service and never forget the sacrifices they make to protect lives.
For the second time, Elevate Academy hosted a First Responders Appreciation Breakfast, where students in the school’s culinary arts program worked early in the morning to cook pancakes, sausages, potatoes, bacon and to brew coffee.
The program’s teacher, Nate Harvey, told EastIdahoNews.com that breakfast is one of the easiest and most comforting meals that they can give to these first responders.
Harvey said this breakfast also shows these first responders that they have these students behind them in support of what they do.
“Being able to partner with a lot of our first responders, have them come in, and talk to these students is a big, significant thing,” Harvey said.
For him, looking back 25 years ago, Harvey was in the seventh grade at Taylorview Junior High when the news broke about the attacks in New York.
“We stopped class, and we got to watch everything,” Harvey said. “I’m always teaching my students, if you want to be a business owner and you want the community to support you. You need to support the community.”
Talking with one of the students, Senior Kyla Madsen, 17, said that for her, experiencing 9/11 has come through experiences like this breakfast, talking with first responders, and what they remember of that day.
But for the breakfast, she said it’s important to her because it’s a small way for her and the rest of the students to give back to those deputies, firefighters and paramedics.
“I feel like it’s a really good way to start the day for them and for us too,” Madsen said. “This whole breakfast is just about giving back to the first responders and showing them a sliver of the kindness they’ve shown.”
Bonneville County Deputy and Elevate Academy’s School Resource Officer Kyle Penney told EastIdahoNews.com that the breakfast means a lot to him as it helps build good relationships with the students at the school.
While only a toddler when 9/11 occurred, Penney has had service at his core, as when he became an adult, he joined the military and was deployed overseas to fight the war on terrorism. Now a veteran, he appreciates the support the community gives first responders like him.
A sergeant with the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office, Daniel Sperry, remembers when he was a police officer in Colorado, watching the Twin Towers come down and the impact it had across America.
“Even though we were so displaced from New York, the skies became so quiet,” Sperry said. “That’s how it impacted me. It made it real because, where I usually would see a lot of airplanes, there was nothing.”
One memory Sperry shared was needing a life-flight helicopter that day for a medical emergency, and that special permission was required to get the flight underway.
Sperry said he appreciates the teachers at Elevate Academy for allowing so many students to participate in this breakfast and for educating them about 9/11.
“The support that we receive from the community as a whole does not go unnoticed,” Sperry said.
With the breakfast lasting until 10 a.m., and plenty of boxes still left, the culinary students of Elevate Academy — and others from the medical and law enforcement classes — grabbed a box and began walking down Walton Avenue to the Bonneville County Fire Station.
Over 30 breakfast boxes were taken to the fire station, where Idaho Falls Fire Department Firefighter John Sanders welcomed the students and joked that only five firefighters were there.
After a tour of the station, Sanders told EastIdahoNews.com that he was surprised, but appreciative of the support those students put into making so many portions for them.
He said that when he was a kid, things like this didn’t happen for first responders, but since 9/11, he feels there’s now a culture of greater compassion toward them.
“Seeing all those kids here, it’s just appreciative to know that people haven’t forgotten about it and they remember it, and I appreciate what they did for us,” Sanders said.
