It is nice to see Wild Adventures Theme Park once again recognizing the first-responders in our community. 

The park is inviting these hard-working men and women to Wild Adventures for free during the Labor Day holiday. 

Other organizations, nonprofits, churches and government agencies recognize our first-responders throughout the year. 

None of these men and women who serve our community day in and day out consider themselves to be heroes. 

Largely, they are unassuming, humble and just go about doing their jobs, hardly giving it a second thought. 

But they often put themselves in harm’s way and work long, hard and difficult hours to keep the rest of us safe. 

When most of us are enjoying time off from work with our families on holidays, they are responding to fires, traffic accidents, weather-related emergencies and they all know they could be called to an active shooter scene in a moment’s notice. 

As we run from danger, they may be called upon to run toward it.

And they do. 

Wild Adventures just reminded us this week — by its generous gesture — that we don’t pause often enough to say thank you. 

We deeply appreciate the men and women in uniform, whether they are firefighters, law-enforcement officers, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, tactical response teams, other emergency personnel and even utility workers who must brave inclement weather to restore power during natural disasters. 

We should never take their service to the community for granted. 

Whether they are strictly volunteers or paid professionals, what they do to serve and protect us goes beyond expectation and deserves the full appreciation of our entire community. 

We know many of you will be on alert and standby as we wait to see if our region will be impacted by the approaching storm, and we know that you do so willingly. 

Of course, like you, we also hope our region is spared. 

If we are impacted, we know you will be there, helping to take care of the rest of us. 

We appreciate your willingness to do whatever it takes to serve and protect. 

So, as the holiday approaches and as the storm approaches, we hope many of our first-responders will be able to take Wild Adventures up on its offer and enjoy the holiday. 

We also hope you know that you are appreciated and respected for all you do to keep all of us safe and sound.