Officer honored for saving Christmas for family

Yesterday I had the pleasure of presenting Officer Chad Fenwick with a Certificate of Commendation for his selfless acts this past Christmas. On Dec. 16, 2010, Officer Fenwick was dispatched to a disturbance at a house where he found a woman living with eight of her 10 children (the two oldest ones already had moved out on their own). She said her husband had beaten her badly, and she and the children had lived in and out of domestic violence shelters for more than a year before getting the house through aid.

Officer Fenwick saw the family had very little, and when he asked one of the children what she wanted for Christmas, the girl said, “peace.” The family’s plight weighed on him, so on Christmas Eve, he showed up with three large bags of gifts he’d purchased for everyone in the family. He called two other officers to help him communicate this with the mother, who spoke only Spanish. The translating officers were so touched, they, too, went and bought gifts for the family. The mother was so grateful that she invited all three officers over for Christmas dinner the next day.

As Officer Fenwick's commander, Captain Todd Paulson, put it, “Officer Fenwick’s actions were the reason that this family was able to have Christmas.”

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