The scene outside The Cades Center might’ve looked startling with five Madison County Fire Department trucks sitting in front of the facility for about a half-hour Wednesday morning, but anything but an emergency was happening inside.
A dozen firefighters were there along with Chief Eric Turner, singing Christmas songs and spreading Christmas cheer to the residents of the center. The stop was the first of five scheduled for the day at various assisted living facilities throughout the county.
“A few of the guys said this was something they wanted to do, so I called around to a few places to see if they’d have us,” Turner said.
Charles Fitzhugh was the firefighter who spearheaded the singing tour and was the main one communicating with the residents who were listening to the performance between songs.
“Are we sounding OK?” Fitzhugh asked at one point before getting a resounding “yes” from the crowd. “Good, because we only got together to practice one time before we came out.”
Fitzhugh’s phone was hooked up to a portable speaker in the corner, playing the melodies to Christmas carols like “Joy to the World,” “Away in a Manger” and “The First Noel.”
“We were sitting around after lunch one day last week talking about Christmas and singing Christmas carols, and I said something about how it would be nice if a bunch of us went out and sang to maybe some of our senior citizens in the county,” Fitzhugh said. “Chief said he’d see if he could find anyone that would want to hear us if I was serious.
“So I sent out a group text, and we got about a dozen of us to come out.”
With one performance down and at least four to go the rest of the day with the possibility of adding more stops once word got out what they were doing, Fitzhugh said the firefighter Christmas choir was already talking about making the tour an annual tradition.
“This was fun, and the rest of the day will be fun too,” Fitzhugh said. “I hope we do this every year.”
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
