SALISBURY — Members of all different law enforcement agencies from across the county converged on the Rowan History Museum on Thursday to enjoy an appreciation luncheon hosted by Powles Staton Funeral Home.

Russ Roakes, a funeral director with Powles Staton, said that they make sure to invite anyone involved in law enforcement in any capacity to the lunch. Every municipality’s departments, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office, the probation and parole departments, magistrates, lawyers and judges are all invited to enjoy the home-cooked meals.

“You’ve got Salisbury police here, you’ve got probation here, our guys in the Sheriff’s Office here, you’ve got SBI, and I’m sure there will be other agencies here. It brings everybody together and everybody sits around, you can call it fellowship, and everybody talks,” said Rowan County Chief Deputy Jason Owens.

The ribeye steak sandwiches themselves are prepared by John Brindle, Rowan County Register of Deeds, and Shane Aldridge, an assistant in the Register of Deeds office.

“The way it got started, I’d stopped by John’s office to talk to him about some other matters, and I said we’re thinking about doing a law enforcement appreciation lunch, do you know any caterers? And John’s first answer was, ‘well, I’ll do it,” said Roakes.

Roakes noted that a representative of the firearms manufacturer Glock sent over baskets of free merchandise for Roakes and Brindle to help raise funds. During the luncheon, a raffle was held for some of that merchandise where all of the proceeds from the ticket sales went to the Rowan County Sheriff Benevolent Fund. Part of that merchandise was previously raffled off during a fundraiser lunch to help support former Rowan County deputy Jeff Hodges, who was injured in a motorcycle accident earlier this year.

Brindle said that this is not the only time he cooks free meals for law enforcement during the year. Sometimes he will help put together a breakfast, with grits, sausage sandwiches and pancakes, and set up outside the entrance to the jail. They then serve the breakfast to the jail crews and other squads as they come and go from the jail.