A Message from APCO’s President

Each year, we take some time to say thank you to our true first, first responders with National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.  This week is all about YOU!   Emergency Communications Centers (ECC’s) around the world celebrate at different levels.  Some agencies have elaborate themes and celebrate all week long, while others don’t celebrate at all.

A few weeks ago, I saw a post on social media about ‘adopting a center’.  This was a group of Telecommunicators who acknowledged that some centers do not receive any thanks, or any type of celebration during this special week.   With that in mind, a telecommunicator suggested collecting some of those centers’ names, and allowing people (or centers) to ‘adopt’ a center for that week, sending surprises, gifts, and thank you cards to bring the celebration to them.

This amazed, but did not surprise me.   Being a hero is not just your job, it’s who you are.

I hope each of you takes a moment to reflect back on the past year and celebrate the successes. You have impacted lives daily, you have been the calm voice in someone’s darkest hour, and you have been the only hope for many in their most dire moments.  You have been challenged greatly and you have stood strong.

On behalf of your APCO Executive Committee, I would like to thank you for the work you do every day.  We celebrate you, and we are extremely proud of what you do every day to keep the thin gold line shining.