HOLDEN — Some Holden residents were given a warm welcome on the Saturday morning of January 21.
As the George Pond Estates community was cleaning snow off their cars and clearing their driveways in the cold morning air, they were greeted with a surprise from the Holden Police Department: heating oil for their homes, completely free of charge.
According to Holden Police Chief Chris Greeley, the department raised more money than they expected with their annual “25 Days of Kindness” event, a community fundraiser held every December for the past six years.
“I realize that something like this is not — maybe traditionally — what a police department would do, but it’s a small community, it’s a wonderful community,” said Greeley. “And, while we have hard things and bad things we have to sometimes deal with, it’s nice to be able to do something nice like this.”
The department brought along No Frills Oil to fill the tanks, but for those who don’t heat their homes with oil, Greeley made sure to provide $100 gift cards so that everyone was included in the donation.
Resident Amanda Fahey shared her feelings about the surprise.
“It’s really generous, and — I don’t want to get emotional about it — but living paycheck to paycheck makes it really hard to keep the house heated,” said Fahey.
Resident Christina Taheny said the department helped to ease the burden of heating costs, and that she was grateful for the help during hard times.
“Oil’s very expensive right now. So, you know, to try and come up with that amount of money — for even just 100 gallons — is a lot of money,” said Taheny. “I just want to say thank you so much to the Holden Police Department. And, you know, happy new year!”