I was so thankful to have the opportunity to attend the Serve & Connect Knight of Honor Gala, where she received the prestigious Gregory Alia Award for excellence in community policing. As I said before, I first met Officer Foster at a Clean Up day (like the one we have scheduled THIS Saturday!). Officer Foster recently saved a resident from an overdose. She helped return a missing suicidal boy to his home. Her quick thinking and level-headedness at a domestic violence call allowed her to de-escalate the situation and disarm a man threatening his wife without any injuries. And when she saw a little boy trying to play basketball with a medicine ball, she stopped to talk to him and find out why. When he told her his had been damaged and his parents couldn’t afford to buy him a new one, she got him one. On her time off, she took a homeless woman to her AA meetings and the Social Security Office. Every day, in a million large and small ways, she is making a difference in our community. And she says, “I’m honored and humbled to have won this award when I truly feel that I do nothing special.” I think what she does is very special. It takes a special kind of person to do this job—not just to enforce the law but to do it with compassion and kindness, in a way the creates connection and builds relationships and trust and makes our community safer, healthier, and happier. We are blessed to have her in the Simpsonville Police Department. And we are blessed with so many other officers whose good works go unnoticed every day but make significant contributions to our quality of life.