(ABC 6 News)- The Zumbrota Police Department received quite the Christmas gift in the form of a generous donation of over $1000 fundraised by a member of the public.

It all was to show thanks for all the department does.

“It’s just great to see that kind of support within the community and that they feel that strongly about their local police,” said Chief Patrick Callahan of the Zumbrota Police Department.

The idea began by Greg Mort, a resident of Zumbrota, back on December 18th to show support for those who keep the community safe.

“I mean in this case it was the police department. I kind of wanted to shine a light on them and say thank you to everything you guys do. They are always seeing all sorts of things all the time so it’s nice to have some positivity,” Mort said.

The fundraiser reached the 900 mark at the end of last week. It’s a number that Mort said he didn’t expect at first.

“I never really knew where I was going to go with it, if it was just going to be able to keep a couple things of coffee or something like that, but 900 bucks. I think there’s 7 full timers in our department here so we’ll be able to provide a little bit for them for a little while,” said Mort.

And now with over a thousand dollars raised, the question is what will happen next.

“We got to forward it to the city to accept the donation . That won’t happen till after the new year,” Callahan said.

He expressed how well the city of Zumbrota is at supporting their local first responders.

“This being my third law enforcement agency in my career, hopefully final, I never worked in a community where there’s that much support for their police,” said Callahan.