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AMERICUS – With cases of COVID-19 on the rise here in Sumter County, healthcare workers, along with the Sumter County Fire Department, the Sumter County Sherriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office and other local government agencies and first responders throughout the county are under a tremendous amount of stress as they try to do everything they can to slow down the spread of the Coronavirus. For that reason, as well as out of appreciation for their hard work and bravery, on Tuesday morning, April 14, Ameri Green Environmental decided to provide barbecue to all of the first responders at its headquarters, located at 109 Matthews Dr. in Americus.

Representatives from all of the first responders in Americus and Sumter County stopped by the establishment to pick up the barbecue to take back to their fellow workers.

“We made barbecue this morning and fed all of the first responders: The Sherriff’s Department, the GBI, the fire department, the DA’s Office, the police department, we fed them all,” said Ameri Green Business Development Manager Darrie Hart. Hart went on to say that on Palm Sunday, April 5, Ameri Green Environmental fed all of the healthcare workers at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center.

“We’re just so proud of everything they do and their having to be out here and continue to do their job during the COVID-19 crisis,” said Hart. “We just wanted to make sure that somebody was trying to take care of them and let them know that we appreciate them. That’s pretty much what it was all about.”

The original plan was to have representatives from each department come by to pick up the barbecue from the hours of 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, but the department representatives picked up numerous plates for their fellow first responders and the job was done shortly before 1 p.m. that afternoon.

As of 11:28 a.m. on Tuesday, April 14, the Georgia Department of Public Health reports that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Sumter County has risen to 265 and that two more people have died of the disease, increasing the total number of COVID-19 fatalities in the county to 11. With the number of confirmed cases and deaths increasing in the county, the stress that the local first responders are under continues to increase. The generosity shown to the first responders by local businesses such as Ameri Green Environmental through the provision of food is no doubt greatly appreciated by all of the county’s first responders.