Community organization says thank you to the Gulfport Fire Department

GULFPORT, MS (WLOX) - The 450 or so members of the Gulfport Scottish Rite organization turned their Wednesday breakfast into an appreciation meal for their city’s fire department. In this case, everyone in the Gulfport Fire Department got a meal and much more.

"We wanted to open the breakfast to everyone at the fire department because we feel that the secretaries and the dispatchers are important to the process,” said John McKelvy.

Scottish Rite member James Case spent nearly 30 years working as a fireman at the Gulfport Seabee Base and says while the frontline fire crews get all the glory, he knows it takes a village or in this case the support crew to keep the team organized.

“You’ve got your mechanics who have a part in this and your dispatchers have to get you the info you need,” Case said.

In the kitchen, the crew made sure food-wise the department members got what they needed.

"When we open it like this, they do eggs to order,” McKelvy added. “One of our things is community outreach. We’ve done this for the police department back in August. We reached out to the firefighters this time.”

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