Key points

Gratitude can help transform stressful shifts, providing meaning to first responders' sacrifices.

Their prosocial acts can boost their sense of purpose and meaning.

Those serving during holidays, leaving an empty chair at their family's table, make their communities safer.

This Thanksgiving, while millions of Americans gather around tables laden with turkey and tradition, hundreds of thousands of police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and dispatchers will don their uniforms and answer a different kind of call. For these first responders, Thanksgiving is another shift, another opportunity to serve, and, often, another holiday spent away from those they love most.

There is a particular ache that comes with knowing your family is seated at the dining room table, and a chai

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