“A Tale of Two Cities…. An After Thanksgiving Story”
By Chief Fred Maas

Generally, I try and write a few words before Thanksgiving to express my gratitude for the officers and civilian employees who work for the Sunny Isles Beach Police Department and do so much to bring positive recognition to the agency and our city. I am grateful to them and I am constantly reminded of their genuine concern and kindness towards the people they serve.

However this year, I find myself writing after Thanksgiving because of a couple of situations that occurred in our neighboring city of Aventura Police Department that certainly made me feel good about law enforcement and Thanksgiving.

Although he would probably be very upset with me because of the recognition for doing what he did, I’ll take that risk. You see, the Aventura Police Department has a program at Thanksgiving for the needy and the elderly who are by themselves, to provide a turkey to them for Thanksgiving. However, this year, a certain person due to a miscommunication did not receive her turkey and it wasn’t discovered until Wednesday, the day before the Holiday.

Unfortunately, all the “birds” were gone and had been distributed. But a certain Command Staff member at Aventura Police Department when he learned of the plight, reached into his own pocket and provided the money necessary to go and buy on short notice, a turkey, to be sent to the “forgotten” resident. No one knew about it, no questions asked; he just did it. This person is a very, quiet individual who is one of those behind the scenes people who gets things done with little or no fanfare or recognition, so I wasn’t’ too surprised when I heard of this because “that’s him.”

The second incident that evoked pride was when a person very close to me learned that a coworker at Aventura Police Department Communications Center would be working on Thanksgiving and had no place to go for dinner and had no family locally, took it upon herself to invite the coworker to her dinner table with her family. Although the logistics of scheduling did not allow for her to make it for dinner, dinner was brought to her while she was on duty so that “Thanksgiving” could have some meaning to this person. As the story goes, she was so appreciative, she must have said thank you 8 or 9 times, maybe 10 who knows. She got her point of appreciation across.

The Sunny Isles Beach Police Department has ALWAYS had a great working relationship with their partners across the causeway, the Aventura Police Department. We have teamed up on a number of occasions to do some great police work together and caught criminals in doing so. We are there to help each other and now I understand even better as we share a similar philosophy of community policing in law enforcement and the way we treat our citizens. I am grateful this Thanksgiving for having my own good, caring officers. I am equally grateful having such good, caring officers as our neighbors are in Aventura Police Department.

So thank you Deputy Chief Steve Steinberg for your example of generosity and humble spirit and kindness to a less fortunate citizen in story number one. And thanks to my daughter Katherine, for never forgetting what she was taught as a child, that there is always room for one more at our table, when someone has no one or no place to go. I am very proud of you!!! Happy Thanksgiving everyone and may the spirit of the Holidays be in your heart and May God Bless and Protect all of us thru the Holiday Season.

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