ON SEPT. 11, THE HIGHLANDS decided to thank area first responders with a breakfast-to-go at their make-shift drive-thru at Cadigan Lodge in Topsham.

ON SEPT. 11, THE HIGHLANDS decided to thank area first responders with a breakfast-to-go at their make-shift drive-thru at Cadigan Lodge in Topsham.

TOPSHAM

The Highlands staff Thursday honored local first responders by giving those who drove up to the portico of Cadigan Lodge a breakfast to go.

It’s not to often when an ambulance pulls up at an assisted care and retirement facility that they get a round of applause, but Thursday morning that’s what two medics who stopped by in a North East ambulance experienced. Bill Goodrich and Nick Rathbone were handed menus to choose from and then Highlands staff began packaging their coffee and breakfast sandwiches — egg and bacon, sausage, the gamete. Chris Toole, food services director prepared eggs expertly while wearing the red Texaco fireman hat he had as a child.

Bill Goodrich and Nick Rathbone with North East Ambulance are greeted with applause and their breakfast orders taken Thursday morning by staff at The Highlands.

Bill Goodrich and Nick Rathbone with North East Ambulance are greeted with applause and their breakfast orders taken Thursday morning by staff at The Highlands.

“Emergency crews, whether it’s police, fire, or ambulance drivers and paramedics constantly give and give,” stated a Highlands press release. “Now, they are at the receiving end, and in a way which won’t interrupt with their duties.”

“They are always available to help us and to help our residents, 24/7,” added Wellness Coordinator Lisa Secone, herself an ambulance driver in her own community of Harpswell. “We tried to think up some little way to give back to those who give so much to us. This is just a small token of how much we appreciate them.”

It was a community-wide effort, with residents donating some of the homemade baked goodies like cookies, muffins and bars to go along with the fruit cups and made-to-order breakfast sandwiches the dining services provided. Coffee and juice was available. The residents made a thank you sign as well. Their breakfast-to-go invitation went out to the Topsham and Brunswick police and fire departments, as well as fire and rescue crews for Freeport, Bath, Lisbon, Bowdoin and Bowdoinham, Harpswell Neck fire and rescue, and North East Ambulance.

“Retirement communities can take care of their own… but it’s those few, those first responders out in the greater communities who truly take care of all of us,” the release stated. “On September 11th, it will be our chance at The Highlands to say ‘thank you’ to these special people.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com


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