A biscuit, juice, coffee and appreciation were on the menu Friday morning at an appreciation breakfast for law enforcement officers.

The accounting firm of Wilson, Jones & Griffin PA hosted the breakfast for officers with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and area police departments from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the firm’s office on East Second Street.

“It really means a lot to us in that there are people, whether they give breakfasts like this or just a pat on the back, that really understand what we do on a day-to-day basis and the challenges that we face being in this profession,” said Stacy Drakeford, director of Washington’s Police and Fire Services. “As far as breakfasts or something in this nature, that’s very far between. The thanks we’ve been getting lately from the general public has been happening quite often here lately.”

Mike Lore, a deputy with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, explained the importance of the event to the law enforcement community: “It means a lot to us, especially the way it is today with the war on cops, I guess you could say. It’s a good thing.”

Lewis Jones, one of the firm’s partners, discussed the motivation behind the breakfast. “We had an office meeting one day, and the staff wanted to do something for the community. So, we listed out a bunch of different things we’d like to do around, just be seen and known and give thanks out. So, as an office, we decided we were going to let everyone have an afternoon off and work for their favorite nonprofit. That was individually,” he said. “We decided to do something as a whole, as a group. We though the way that law enforcement had been looked at across the country, some places not so favorably, we wanted to show our love and appreciation for the local officers here. We felt what better way than to feed somebody.”

Robert Griffin, another partner, was impressed by the turnout. “It says that they appreciate us kind of reaching out to them and showing them we appreciate them. We just kind of walked around and told everyone — as far as local law enforcement — that we were going to be having this. That was the only thing we did. We didn’t do any emails or online advertisement. We just kind of did word to mouth. It looks like everybody showed up. They appreciate it, it looks like,” he said.