GREENVILLE – This was the first year for ‘Hop with a Cop’ at the Greenville Veterans of Foreign Wars and it has been deemed a success.
“The Police Department came up with the idea and the VFW was the planner and provider for the Easter Egg event,” said VFW Auxiliary Secretary Sue Schlechty. “Yes, this is the first year, but we are already talking about next year and things we want to improve on to make them better. The event started at 10 a.m. and ended at 2 p.m., giving the kids a chance to visit the policemen and firemen, sit in their vehicles and get some free items from the police officers.“
The egg hunt, according to her, began at 11 for ages 1 – 10.
“We were so blessed to have so many of such great bunny helpers,” she explained. “We had helpers who filled 750 eggs with candy and a quarter and we had one helper who filled 150 bunny bags for the Easter Bunny to hand out. We had a great helper first thing when we started to get the grounds all ready for the kids to be safe. We also served hot dogs, chips, juice and water for everyone inside so they could sit down and enjoy. It took all of us to make it happen. We learned a lot for the next one.”
Schlechty said there were approximately 100 children who took part in the event.
“To keep it fair for all the kids, they were only allowed to find five eggs each so that everyone got the chance. Not sure the kids liked it, but at least we knew everyone got some,” she said. “It was really a lot of fun and the kids were all well-behaved. I was extremely satisfied with the way it turned out. not really knowing what we were getting into, but learned a lot.“
She believes the firefighters involved that day were of the B unit, she believed, Shaun Brandenburg’s group.
Attending from the Greenville Police Department were Chief Ryan Benge, Ben Boyer, Ryan Browske, William Niebert and Sgt. Mitch Raffel,
Chief Benge said his department has been doing outreach activities in the community, which include this year’s first-time ‘Hop With a Cop’ as it did at the VFW’s Easter Egg hunt.
“We’re excited,” said the chief. “We’ve done this before, but can’t do this as much as we want.”
