Emergency responders to receive sweet Hometown Hero Thank You

What started as a way for a Cookie Brigade in Harrison to thank local emergency responders has turned into an all-day event where the public is invited to celebrate police, fire and ambulance personnel.

Lori Miller coordinated the Hometown Hero Thank You as a way to extend appreciation to local volunteers in the wake of Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire’s line-of-duty death in January.

“This community needs a way to come together and heal,” Miller said. “There will be tears and joy.”

The free event is scheduled for Saturday, March 18 at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 894 in Harrison.

Among those being celebrated are police from Harrison, Tarentum, Fawn, Brackenridge, Allegheny Valley Regional and Frazer departments. Fire and EMS from each of the communities, along with constables and Highlands School District police, also will be recognized.

“We started with the idea to deliver a box of Girl Scout cookies to each responder,” Miller said. “Then we thought, ‘Hmm. That’s kind of a big undertaking.’ ”

Instead, the brigade decided on a community party and ordered 52 cases — more than 600 boxes of cookies — from Highlands Elementary School student Vera Messaros. Boxes were wrapped with bows in giant towers for each department.

Families are invited to attend. There will be coloring pages and photo opportunities for children, who can mingle with the first responders.

There also will be a massive cookie table, chocolates and more. Natrona Bottling Co. is donating pop. State Rep. Mandy Steele will be on hand to distribute special pins to participants.

“There are special surprises in store,” Miller said.

When mom Jen Messaros received the eye-popping order for so many boxes of Girl Scout cookies, she started to brainstorm ways to add to the festivities.

She made balloon centerpieces and enlisted first graders at the elementary school to color 150 handmade cards.

“I’m so grateful to be a part of it,” she said. “It snowballed into something fantastic.”

This isn’t the first time Miller and her friends have bestowed outreach.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, they wanted to help families who had lost their jobs or been otherwise affected.

“We were the Bunny Bridgade that year,” Miller said. “We made 82 Easter baskets and food boxes and did porch dropoffs.”

When the pandemic lingered, the group morphed into the Turkey Brigade and paid a local caterer to prepare dinners with all the fixings for people in need.

The Elf Brigade was next.

“We decided to take one family each year and give them a Hallmark Christmas,” she said.

One year, it was a family who recently welcomed twin micro-preemies who weighed just more than a pound each. The group paid their rent and bought them a truckload of diapers.

In past years, the Cookie Brigade has sent sweet treats to the now-defunct Harrison Meals on Wheels and a local soldier stationed overseas.

“It was an easy choice this year to recognize our first responders,” Miller said.