Today our volunteer Police and Fire Chaplains hosted chili meals for our staff throughout the day.

It’s an opportunity for the chaplains to spend time with police and fire employees in an informal setting, which they don’t often get a chance to do.

Each chaplain is affiliated with a church in Eden Prairie. The seven pastors take turns serving on-call and are dispatched to scenes where officers think the spiritual presence of a chaplain would bring some comfort to those involved. The scenes include calls for missing person reports, house fires, death investigations and car crashes. In 2024 chaplains were dispatched to scenes seven times; in 2023 they were called out 22 times.

We appreciate our chaplains for so many reasons. In addition to making delicious chili, they also selflessly give of their time to provide emotional and spiritual care to both community members and public safety responders. We are fortunate to have them as our partners in public service.

Photo: Chaplains John Brecount, Paul Nelson, Amber Cleveland, Ryan Tarman, Peter Johnson