Building character through community-wide service

This week members of the Sheriff's Office helped work in the Vernon County Youth Fair Diner.

We posted a list where employees could sign up if they wanted to help, and I was very pleased at the amount of people that volunteered to help.

When conducting interviews for new employees, I ask why they want to be in law enforcement.

The most common answer I get is, "I want to help people." In this line of work you have a lot of opportunities to do just that, but there are many different ways to make one's life a service to others and community service is one of the most important.

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." Those are the words of Abraham Lincoln and what he thought about character.

The things you do in life, the people with whom you come into contact, and the decisions you make are what build that character.

This is not the first time I have asked for help with community events and had overwhelming help from the staff. Over the last year and a half, my staff has offered to help with fundraisers for various charity groups and other events like the t-shirt fundraiser, helping pass out literature to kids at Bushwhacker Days and the Christmas dinners we cooked and delivered to families on Christmas Eve.

Wednesday evening at the diner, the employees had a great time working with each other and family members as well as meeting and talking with members of the community as they came through the diner.

The evening was filled with friendly jokes and laughter as they all did their assigned job. Although things like this may not seem as important as catching criminals and responding to emergency calls, there is a high value that can be placed on the importance of positive contact with the community for the deputies as well as the citizens of Vernon County.

Dorothy Height, an advocate for women's suffrage, said, "Without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life.

It's important to the person who serves as well as the recipient. It's the way in which we ourselves grow and develop."

The quality of life is not determined by where you live, or who you are, instead it is what you do with life and how you make it better for someone else.

Our goal at the Sheriff's Office is to help make the most positive change in our community that we can and build character while we do it.