The Hooray for Heroes drive-thru parade honoring the Longview Police and Fire Departments, on Wednesday July 1, 2020, at Longview City Hall. (Michael Cavazos/ News-Journal Photo)

Julie Woods remembers being a young girl, growing up in Kilgore and participating in a patriotic parade in her neighborhood that her dad organized.

“We all decorated our bikes and our ride-on toys and we had a big community patriotic parade,” she recalled. “That’s been something that’s been sentimental to me.”

In 2020, Woods’ life came full circle as she organized and led a drive-by parade, called Hooray for Heroes, to show support for Longview’s first responders.

What started as a simple parade has turned into a community-wide effort in both Longview and Kilgore to show appreciation to first responders all year long. With Adopt A Cop programs and Adopt A Fire Station programs, Longview Police Chief Mike Bishop said first responders are feeling the community’s love and support more than ever.

“It’s meant a great deal to us because it’s a difficult time for officers, not only here but across the country. It just helps our officers to understand that we have a community that supports us and it helps with the morale of the officers,” Bishop said. “It’s important for them to know that while we see what’s going on across the country, we have a community here that supports us.”

And it all started with Woods, who continues to lead and oversee the efforts.

Woods’ efforts began in the summer when racial unrest and distrust toward police were high across the nation. Demonstrations across the country, including some in Longview, started after a white police officer in Minnesota killed a black man as he was arresting him. The incident prompted people to protest for racial justice.

In Longview, Woods thought about officers here with whom she is friends. She said she knows her friends are not racist and would not treat people that way.

“I thought how discouraged I would feel if my industry were being singled out like that and if there were one bad person and all of us had to suffer because of one person’s actions,” Woods said.

Then, in mid-June, a video went viral, showing a handful of black men taunting and verbally threatening Longview police officers as they were conducting a traffic stop.

“You could see just how full of integrity our officers were when people were yelling in their faces,” Woods recalled.

At the same time, she also thought about Longview’s firefighters who visited nursing homes to administer COVID-19 tests, performing a duty for which they never signed up.

“I thought how discouraged they must be … and I wondered how we could do something to show them appreciation,” Woods recalled. “Of course, everyone does a meal but I wanted to do something more impactful that would involve more people.”

Woods noticed the reverse birthday parades being held amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and also recalled her father’s patriotic parade.

“I thought, what if we did something like that for the police and firemen,” she said.

Woods contacted Bishop and Longview Fire Chief J.P. Steelman. The two men were overcome by her request to hold a parade for first responders.

Woods planned for the parade to be held at Longview City Hall, and the Longview Public Library joined with her to help decorate cars. She collected items to help decorate the vehicles and more businesses came on board to donate items to the first responders directly. For example, Copper Tree Retreat gave each officer a free massage and facial.

To help ensure the parade’s success, Woods contacted a handful of friends including a couple of Jeep clubs and Bikers Against Child Abuse.

“My goal was to have 50 or 60 cars there. I would have considered that a win,” she said.

Between 450 and 500 cars attended the event. When Woods arrived at City Hall around 4:15 p.m. July 1 for the 5:30 p.m. parade, the parking lot was already full.

“It was so fun and so meaningful to our officers,” she said.

Bishop said the parade and community’s support meant a lot to Longview’s police officers, especially at the time.

“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” he said.

Following the parade, so many people had wanted to donate so many things for the first responders that Woods came up with another idea.

“We came up with this idea of Adopt a Cop, where you can adopt your own police officer and take them goodies,” she said.

She created a website, called hoorayforheroeslongview.com, in which people could sign up to adopt an officer.

Since it began a few months ago, all 180 Longview Police officers have been adopted. The volunteers who adopt them, connect with them quarterly. People who adopt an officer are asked to pray for their officer, send them a handwritten note and drop off a gift, if they can, once a quarter.

“To see the look on the officer’s face when they come in to pick up with the gifts that are left for them, it leaves them with a good feeling,” Bishop said.

For example, one officer enjoys beef jerky, so the person who adopted him signed him up for a beef jerky of the month club, Woods said.

Some people have adopted multiple officers. Pine Tree Middle School has adopted about 14 officers, Woods said, and the school’s Student Council comes up with ideas to honor their officers monthly.

“You can do as much or as little as you want; we just ask people to try to do something quarterly,” she said. “Our main message is to say, ‘We see you. We notice you. We appreciate you.’”

After the success with the police department, Woods expanded the effort to the Longview Fire Department by creating an Adopt A Fire Station program on the Hooray for Heroes Longview website. The city of Longview has eight fire stations. Each fire station has three shifts, an A shift, a B shift and a C shift. Woods goal was for each shift at each station to be sponsored, and for the volunteers who adopt them to take them large baskets of food and treats once a quarter.

“Every single shift has been sponsored,” she said.

Then, the movement spread to Kilgore, her hometown. Woods established a Kilgore website, called hoorayforheroeskilgore.com, for people to adopt a police officer or a shift at a fire station.

“All of their officers have been adopted as well and all of their fire stations have been sponsored,” Woods said.

This year, Woods plans for the Hooray for Heroes parade to be held in both Longview and Kilgore, and she’d like to see people parade between the two cities to show support to first responders in both communities.

She’s hoping to see the movement continue to grow and spread as well. She’s been contacted by people as far away as Alabama and Arkansas and as near as White Oak and Hallsville about how to start similar programs.

“I’m hopeful it will spread,” she said. “I just want to see more positivity in the world.”