Police chief thankful for support

To the editor:
I would like to thank the Portland Police Department reserve officers, full-time officers, the Citizens Police Academy Alumni, the Jay County Sheriff/Portland Police chaplains, Jay Schools, Wal-Mart and the Jay County community for making the 2014 Shop with a Police Officer a great success.
This year started out no different than the last several for our Citizens Police Academy Alumni and our reserve police officers. In January they started discussing fundraisers for the year, in hopes of raising enough money to take 20 children shopping for Christmas. As the year went on the alumni had bake sales and other fundraisers, and a few donations came in.
As we approached November, the citizens academy alumni and police reserves realized that they were short on funds, and would not have enough funds to take 20 children shopping. During this time the names of children started coming in, and some heartbreaking stories followed. A donation came from an out-of-county factory. Two citizens came in to the police department and made donations.
At the beginning of December, the captain of the police reserves was in my office. We were looking over the names of the children that were selected, and the funding. Twenty-four children were selected and the group was still short on funds. As we discussed the funding issue, the phone rings. A gentleman on the other end said he wanted to donate some money to help with the kids for Christmas. A couple hours later the gentleman showed up at the police department and made a donation.
On Dec. 13, the Portland Police Department reserves, full-time officers, chaplains, alumni, a member of the E.L.L. staff from the Jay School Corporation, 24 children and families showed up at Wal-Mart to shop. While at Wal-Mart a few people from the community donated money to get started on next year’s program.
The reserve officers and citizens academy alumni work hard on this project every year to make it happen. The reserves are volunteer police officers and do not get paid for the service they provide. I compare them to volunteer fireman. They have the same job as a full-time, same authority, several hours of training yearly, but don’t get paid for their service. They perform the duty because they want to help the community.
The Citizens Police Academy Alumni are people from the community that had enough interest in learning what the police do on a daily basis, that they attended citizen’s police academy. This group meets monthly and looks for ways to help the community. They give a yearly scholarship out to a high school senior that has an interest in law enforcement. They have had floats in parades, and sponsored other great causes in the community.
Both of these groups help the Portland Police Department on a daily basis. As police chief I am very thankful for everyone that made this event possible. I am also very thankful for all the help received from the full time police officers. Nearly all of our full-time officers showed up at Wal-Mart and donated their time to assist.
Thank you,
Nathan Springer
Portland Police Chief