Holden Police Department Carrying On Late Chief Greeley’s ’25 Days Of Kindness’ This Season

It all started in Holden, 5 years ago. A pretty simple concept put into place by acting Police Chief Chris Greeley; have the police department practice random acts of kindness, throughout the community, for 25 days leading up to the Christmas season.

It was what they call a win-win situation: The citizens of the town were aided by the kindness of the police force, and the police department was able to get to know the residents under positive circumstances, rather than negative ones.

That's how the Town Of Holden's 25 Days of Kindness got started. Chief Greeley was a tireless advocate for the program, and very quickly it grew to be something that was nothing short of amazing for this quaint little town.

That's why when Chief Greeley passed away very unexpectedly this Spring, there was no doubt in anyone's mind that the program had to continue, as his legacy to the community.

And so it has. Under the new leadership of current Chief Edward Benjamin and Lt. Andrew Whitehouse, the Holden Police Department kicked off the 5th year of its 25 Days of Kindness Campaign on October 23rd.

The Holden Police Department, with the help of No Frills Oil, delivered over a thousand gallons of heating oil and a number of $100 gift cards to folks who live at the George's Pond Estates.

And Lt. Whitehouse says that's just the beginning.

"You know, as it gets a little bit closer towards Christmas, over the next two months, we've expanded it to more than 25 days, we'll be doing things like stopping in and paying for groceries for folks who could use it."

"We're actually going to be participating with the school department this year. They have dedicated the day on November 17th, which they're calling 'Chris Greeley's Day of Kindness' where they're going to do a bunch of community support activities, as a school department."

"It's very different not having the Chief here, but Chief Benjamin is now spearheading this, and he's doing a great job with it."

"Since the Chief's passing, we've had a lot of folks stop in and make donations. We just had a corporation donate $500 just this week. We get people stopping in...It really starts picking up through the holidays."

If you're interested in making a donation, you can make a donation to The 25 Days of Kindness Program, and send the donations to the Town Office, where it goes into a special non-profit from which the Police Department is able to pay for the things like the oil and gift cards.

The good work the folks in Holden have been doing has not gone unnoticed and we're told other Departments have inquired about the logistics of setting up similar programs around the state.

"We've had a couple of conversations with other departments about how we got started and how we do this, and so we've been answering those sort of basic questions."

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For now, the legacy Chief Greeley started all those years ago, to try to spread kindness wherever he could, lives on in his memory, in the good hands of those who continue to care for the Holden community.

"The spirit here at Holden PD is that we're here for the community. And while we're doing police work and doing all the other things that Police Departments have to do, if we have the opportunity to help somebody out, we're going to do that. We try to make that as much of a priority as possible."

Looking for other ways to help? Here are some ideas.