From our family: Thank you to the police, first responders<\/p>\n
This weekend I received a phone call no parent ever wants to receive.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello Doug, I believe your daughter was found unconscious, she has been taken to the emergency room.\u201d<\/p>\n
I knew my daughter had left to go to the Bells for a ride. I processed the information I had just heard and sifted through all the worst case scenarios in my mind. Over the next hour, I learned more information and wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to all who were involved.<\/p>\n
Thank you to the people who initially found my daughter (whoever you are) who apparently witnessed her crash after hitting a pothole. Thanks for covering her with blankets, staying by her side and calling 911.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Police Officers Brian Stevens and Kirk Whitley. Brian was the first person to call me. I have subsequently learned that he was out of town but deduced, after my daughter regained consciousness and barely mumbled her first name, who she was and tracked me down. Officer Whitley, as the first responder, could not have been more kind, helpful and conscientious.<\/p>\n
Thank you to the Aspen Valley Hospital Emergency Room staff. Everyone I interacted with was pleasant and very professional.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, my daughter is all right. She has a concussion and some scrapes and bruises, but is, thankfully, going to be just fine.<\/p>\n
In a current mind set of defunding police and focusing on the negatives, I wanted to share a positive message about our local first responders and their mission to \u201cServe and Protect.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Officer Whitley met me later in the day at the hospital to deliver my daughters bicycle, I asked him, \u201cHow are YOU doing?\u201d He said it\u2019s tough right now. Recently he has been cursed at and passers by have apparently deemed it appropriate to sadly share their middle finger. Although I do not condone what happened in Minneapolis and, as stories unfold, other locations across America, perhaps we, as human beings, can all focus on the treating each other with kindness.<\/p>\n
To all the people who treated my daughter with care and thoughtfulness. Thank you.<\/p>\n
Doug Leibinger<\/p>\n
Basalt<\/p>\n