The Karl Malone Team held a free dinner event on Friday night to show the community’s gratitude for Wasatch County’s First Responders. “A Night of Thanks” included dinner and prizes donated from multiple local businesses. The Fire Department, Police Department, Sheriff’s Department, Utah Highway Patrol, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and Search and Rescue were invited, along with their families, to attend.
The event was created by Amy Madsen, who is the wife of Karl Malone’s local partner, Andy Madsen. Amy’s son is a deputy sheriff, and her friend is a detective for Heber City. “With all of the negativity [toward first responders] that I saw on Facebook and on social media, I just thought … we need to do something for them, just to let them know that we’re behind them.”
She told her husband that she wanted to show support somehow. The dinner was held outside at a Karl Malone dealership only 9 days later, with over 300 people in attendance.
When Madsen went to businesses in Wasatch County to ask if they would donate to the event, she received an overwhelmingly positive response. “It was a lot! I was surprised,” she said. “It wasn’t even a question of ‘what do you want?,’ it was ‘take whatever you want.’ I was so pleased.”
Mohammad of Mountainland One Stop, who was out of town when Madsen first came by, later donated 5 gift cards for $100 each in gas. The Fit Stop donated 5 different prizes. Signarama made window signs saying, “We support our law enforcement.” Other businesses were also extremely generous.
“It’s good that our cops, our law enforcement, and our firefighters are all comfortable enough with us, as a community, to be able to bring their families out to something like this,” said Madsen. “I hope they enjoyed it.”
Team Karl Malone worked with The Junction, Cafe Galleria, Profit Concepts Inc. (PCI), Swire Coca-Cola USA, and Smith’s to provide the dinner. Additional donations were made by The Fit Stop, Red Ledges, Sport Clips, Crumbl Cookies, Fernweh, Phone Doc, Sportsman’s Warehouse, Signarama, Mountainland One Stop, and Citrus Pear.
The Wasatch High School football team also helped out by setting up and taking down tables and tents.
Madsen is hoping to make this an annual activity to show support to Wasatch County’s first responders. “It was an amazing event, and I hope to do it every year,” she said.
