The Windsor Independent – Jon Liedtke
Dec. 4, 2015
For the past two years an anonymous Windsor senior citizen has been writing 500 personalized Christmas cards for every Windsor Police officer, but following an accident this summer, the remaining 50 had to be completed by a grandchild. Now, the resident is asking for help for next year.
“I had a fall this summer and I fell and broke my shoulder of my right hand, my writing hand, I think the last 50 or 60 cards … my granddaughter stepped up and wrote them for me,” said the resident. “But I’m not sure that I’ll be completely recovered to do this again next year, and I think it needs to be done.”
For Chief Frederick and the rest of the Windsor Police Service, the “incredible gesture” has come to represent the unofficial kickoff of the Christmas Season.
“When we get those cards, it’s a great gesture and we deliver them to each and every member of the service,” said Frederick. “They feel honoured that a member of the community thinks that highly enough of them to write a personal message on 500 cards, just the expense of that and the time it takes to do that, incredible gesture.”
The Christmas Cards are purchased at the end of the season and over the course of the next year are filled with a personalized message and placed aside until December.
“I come from a military family and I think we need to thank people more,” said the resident, who has also sent 2000 Christmas Cards annually to soldiers in Afghanistan for the past seven years. “Usually when I’m watching TV at night, I do write the same thing in every card … and I might do 10 in one night or I might do 100 in one night.”
Why spend the time writing each card one might ask? To thank someone who works in a thankless job.
“We’re so used to thinking in our rearview mirror to see if a cop’s watching before we stomp on the gas that we forget those same people are out there to help us, and I think they need to be thanked for doing that. You could not pay me enough to do what they do. They’re in the line of fire, they go into the worst situations and hopefully everything turns out good.”
“We’re all too quick to send an email or text to somebody, but a card is substantial, you can hang on to it … it’s tangible, it’s not just one thank you, but every day they’re feeling it.”
Windsor woman delivers 500 handmade cards to Windsor Police – Windsor Independent (archive.org)
Jon Liedtke was a co-owner and business development manager for The Windsor Independent.
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