Brad and John - Mornings on KISM
pack a patrol car
You ready to hang out with Santa Claus tomorrow, Brad? We came last year and had a great time. Brad and John, K-I-S-M, of all places, Santa's going to be at the police department tomorrow in Mount Vernon. That's where he'll be. For the Pack Patrol car event, which is put together every year by the Mount Vernon Police Department in Ariel, Jones, she organizes this thing, does a great job, gets this going every year. Officer Chris Carlson is on the line with us, along with Ariel this morning. Chris is the school resource officer at Mount Vernon High School. Good morning, guys. Is Santa Claus ready for this Ariel? He's going to be there on time. He's going to be ready to do this. Good morning. Yeah, he's here. One of our sergeants actually talked to him this week and he's ready to go. Okay, and does he get a police escort? Does Santa Claus, or does he just lands on top of the police department building? And that's how he does it. You know, last year he actually got a police escort. So we're giving him a ride here in style and he's ready to go and hang out with us all day. We love this event. It's Pack a Patrol car in Mount Vernon at the Mount Vernon Police Department tomorrow between noon and three. And this is to help out some kids in need in the Skagit Valley and the Mount Vernon Police Department has reached out to these various groups. And you kind of have a list of kids that you'd like to help zero to 17. Talk about the area. Talk about the agencies involved here. Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, all of the organizations that we're partnered with for the Torque Drive are working with kids and families in the community that need extra support. And it's not just for Christmas. It's all year long throughout the year. And the first two that I'll talk about, we've actually been working with probably since the beginning of this. And it's Children of the Valley. So the locations for that are in Mount Vernon, Burlington, and Peter Woolley. And their outreach to the full Skagit County community is huge. There's over, you know, about 200 families and kids referred to teachers and counselors. They're doing after school programs. So they get to do, you know, things like they're outside playing sports. You know, they do basketball inside. They are going on field trips. And not just that stuff. They're also working on their academics too. And it's all volunteers that come in and help these kids. So it, and it's a safe and nurturing environment to help them grow and feel supported. And it's just, it's a fantastic nonprofit organization that has this ginormous reach out to the community. And then we also have Bridget Collins Family Support Center. So these kids are actually referred to see the therapists and advocacy center at Bridget Collins referred by law enforcement, the prosecutor's office, the CPS. And last year they saw around probably 300 families. They're working with kids to heal from child abuse when it does occur. So a lot of these kids being there are going through things that like we as adults could never even have gotten them. So Bridget Collins is a place that helps them through that and helps their families navigate it through trauma therapy and case management. So between those two we're talking about 500, 500 kids. Yeah. And across that broads scope of kids, it's kids of all ages. So if people were thinking about donating to the Mount Vernon police toy drive, the pack, the patrol car, it's not just kids of toddler age that are excited about Christmas. It's also teens and stuff that maybe haven't had something for Christmas in a couple years or so. Right. Yeah. And that's, I mean, that's such a big part of it. It's all ages. We want to give them a Christmas morning to remember for every age. And we get this one childhood and we really want to make sure that kids in their childhood in this community have a fantastic Christmas. All right. And officer Chris Carlson, you're the school resource officer over at Mount Vernon High School. And you encounter these kids that we're talking about, these teenagers, tell us what that's like and what they're like. Yeah, it's interesting because, you know, there's so many of these kids, like Ariel said, that we're just facing challenges that a lot of us can't recognize. One of the things I find most interesting is a lot of times when we love gift cards for the high school. And the reason I love that is a lot of these high school kids, they don't even want to buy something for themselves. They want to use these gift cards to like go buy their little siblings something, which I mean, if you really break it down, it's really what this time of year is all about. And so it's fantastic. And then one of the additions we made this year for one of our organizations is the Triumph Teen Center. Triumph Teen Center is a local organization here that focuses really on those middle school high school age kids with like after school programs and activities and law enforcement. And then in the school system, we often hear such a demanding need for these safe places and activities for really who are young adults to be engaged after school. And Triumph is one of those places that's really stepped up and kind of filled that void in our community. And we're so grateful to be working with them. And so a lot of our toy drive this year will be helping support them. And it's like you said, it's a wide spectrum of kids that were supporting here. So it's a fantastic organization. We're excited to have them be a part of this as well. I brought my little guy last year and it was a cool little eye opener for him because you know, his eyes get big when he sees all the presents and sees Santa and he got to see some of the cool vehicles and things that you guys had on site. But it was also like, no, these gifts are for other kids and stuff. And to see the light bulb go on in his head and stuff that it was worth bringing him just for that point. I love it when other kids come parents bring their other kids to donate stuff. And it's fantastic because they get to interact with the officers and they get to see these patrol cars and the rescue vehicle, which is super cool. But they also get to see, you know, the gift of giving and how fun that can actually be and be a part of that. And Santa Claus, you get to see him too. So you can bring a gift card of some kind, a toy or cash donations. I know we had a lot of that as well last year. So again, this is at the Mount Vernon Police Department, noon to three. We'll be there between noon and two. Santa Claus will be there for the full run of it. And if you can help out, great, bring the kids by just see the police cars, you know, even if you have nothing to give, even, you know, come and say hi and be a part of it. And, you know, interact with everybody. We're going to have hot cocoa from coffee bar and jet and black is going to be popping from fresh popcorn. So come down, be a part of it and hang out with us. Love it. Thank you. We will. We'll hang out with you tomorrow. All right. We'll do this again. Let's help out these kids in the Skagit Valley. Guys, we'll see you tomorrow. Thank you, Chris. Sounds, sounds good. Thank you. See you tomorrow. Thanks, Arianna. Neverhoods to put a little something, a little karma in your own stocking, if you know what I mean. Yeah, we'll we'll we'll check in on the radio tomorrow. You'll hear us between noon and two.
John Reynolds will be joined by Santa at the Mt Vernon police dept on Saturday from noon till 2 as we pack patrol cars with toys for kids in the Skagit Valley!