FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The second week of April is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. It’s a period of time to show appreciation for dispatchers’ hard work and dedication to keeping people safe.

Kennedy Foster is a Dispatcher One at the Fayetteville Police Department. When asked what her day-to-day life looks like, she said she never knows. She never knows what calls she’s going to get each day.

Next week will mark Foster’s one year on the job.

“Some days we’ll have a full page. That’s 10. Others, I’ll have up to three, which is 30 911’s. That’s a lot in eight hours on top of the city-wide calls that we take,” Foster said.

Dispatchers like Foster talk to people in some of the worst moments of their life.

“You just have to kind of put yourself in their shoes. There are the basic questions we have to get for our officer’s safety as well,” Foster said.

Foster said some calls can be harder to take. She had a baby around eight months ago, and she had to take an infant death call recently. She said that call hit really close to home. Keeping mental health in check is a critical part of being a dispatcher.

According to Foster, if a supervisor or coworker sees that other coworkers are struggling with a call, they’ll let you step back so that you can breathe.

During the past week, departments in Fayetteville have been demonstrating to dispatchers how much they mean to the community.

Sgt. Tony Murphy with the Fayetteville Police Department said this week is a great opportunity to celebrate and appreciate dispatchers and all that they do.

“We couldn’t do what we do on the street without our dispatchers. They’re the first line. They take the call and give that pertinent information to the officers on the street,” Murphy said.

There are three open positions at the Fayetteville dispatch center. It’s a 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift. You can find out how to apply here.