PIZZA FOR PARAMEDICS, POLICE

First responders get free holiday pies

A Windsor pizza business kept first responders fed Christmas Day with free pies for emergency personnel on the job.

Two hours into the start of business on Wednesday, Oven 360 on Grand Marais Road had served 40 hot, fresh pizzas to first responders spending the holiday away from their families.

“It’s fantastic,” said Trevor Iles, a paramedic with Essex-windsor EMS. He and partner Allison Baldwin each had a boxed 14-inch personalized pizza in hand as they hopped into their ambulance.

Those people the pair encountered on Christmas Day gave them “a lot of praise, a lot of high-fives” for working the holiday, Iles said.

“Some people get sick (on Christmas), but they’re glad we’re here,” Isles said between mouthfuls of pizza.

Nick Pare, general manager of the Windsor Oven 360 outlet, described the response on social media from first responders and members of the community responding to the giveaway as “astronomical.”

“We wanted to reach out to first responders, specifically, because they’re watching our backs while we’re all spending time with our families,” Pare said while kneading dough for the next order.

“They’re stuck without their families and friends and people they care about while the rest of us take some time off.”

Pare said Oven 360 will likely offer free pizzas to first responders again next year.

The business’s South Windsor location served emergency personnel free 14-inch pizzas from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.