Superior Police Receive Reach Bags to Help Kids at Emergency Sites
SUPERIOR, Wis. – The Superior Police Department is the latest emergency responders in Wisconsin to get a donation from Reach a Child.
The Madison-based organizations gave them 35 backpacks, one for each squad vehicle. They contain around 15 books that can be handed out to kids to help distract them from emergency calls like fires and domestic situations.
“The police officer can sit down, give them a choice of a book,” says Cory Erickson, a former board chair for Reach a Child who helped to deliver the bags to Superior. “The age range of the books are ages 2 to 12, and so these books have proven very effective in distracting children in crisis situations.”
Reach a Child has been trying to get Reach Bags to every police, fire, and EMT units in Wisconsin. Erickson says hearing success stories of their efforts from some of the over 260 departments they have donated to help them
“We get testimonials all the time,” says Erickson. “They’re heart-wrenching, it’s just amazing.”
The funding for the backpacks came from a grant from the Douglas County Disaster and Welfare Fund, part of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation.
“We’ve been wanting to come up to Superior for a lot of years,” says Erickson, “but we needed to raise the funds. Now the funds have been raised, and so we have been able to make these deliveries here today.”
Both Superior Police Chief Nicholas Alexander and Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation President and CEO Shaun Floerke say they are happy to use the funds to get the Reach Bags, which will help the police department in their community relation activities.
