First responders keep us safe and are among the first to arrive on scene in cases of emergency. They have an extremely important job and all too often the work they do goes unappreciated or isn’t recognized.

Members of Westwood Baptist Church took time last week to say thanks.

The church held a fish fry Thursday for first responders and invited the Selma Police Department, Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, the Selma Fire Department, state troopers and the Potter Station Volunteer Fire Department among others.

“It was a way to show the people that work in our city and our town that we as a church and an evangelical body care about them,” said Jacob Elliott, the youth minister at Westwood Baptist Church. “Not only physically but spiritually as well.”

Elliott said the church served about 110 plates. Numerous members of the church volunteered their time and many who weren’t able to attend made a dessert for the dinner.

Many were able to stay and eat, while others had to pick up their food and get back to work.

“We did a lot of to-go plates because not everybody can show up at one time,” Elliott said. “Somebody has to be out there.”

He said the church has been trying to come up with a way to thank first responders for about a year. Finally, they found a time where it all came together.

“First responders everywhere are underappreciated and underpaid and overworked,” Elliott said. “What we were doing was very minimal but just something to let them know we appreciate them.”

Elliott would understand the job of first responders as well as anyone, considering he works for the Potter Station Volunteer Fire Department and the ambulance service part time.

“I wish we could have done more,” Elliott said.