RIVERBEND - Local police officers recently traveled to Washington, D.C., for National Police Week.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
The organization Mustache March 4 PD funded the weeklong trip in May for 11 officers and their spouses. While in D.C., travelers toured the city, visited the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, participated in a candlelight vigil, and connected with other officers from across the country.
“It gives me some perspective to really appreciate my job and what I do,” said Sgt. Danny Green with the Jerseyville Police Department. “I really enjoyed getting back and being able to talk to my other officers about it and tell them what I took away from it. Hopefully they see that I have a little bit of pep in my step and they can see what a benefit it was. I still can’t believe it. I’ll be at work and just think back on that trip and just still, I can't believe I got to do that and was able to be supported in such a great way.”
Mustache March 4 PD awarded 11 officers — Sgt. Danny Green, Deputy Caleb Gibson, Officer Allen Averbeck, Deputy Matthew Werner, Lt. Christian Cranmer, Officer Ryan Dugger, Officer Brendan Wright, Officer Ian Parnell, Ret. Chief Will Cunningham, Officer Dustin Campbell and Deputy Matt Werner — the Be Like Blake Award earlier this year.
This award commemorates Blake Snyder, who was killed in the line of duty in 2016. Tina Bennett and Wesley Strowmatt, founding members of Mustache March, explained that the award and the trip honor officers who support their communities at work and beyond.
Strowmatt, who was close with Snyder, noted that it’s a powerful experience to see his name on the memorial and the tributes that have been written about him. He believes Snyder would be proud to see how Mustache March 4 PD has grown.
“I struggle explaining it to people, because it’s a place where you’re happy, sad, mad, proud that your friend’s there,” he said. “It is sad, but it’s healing at the same time. It’s a weird thing. I like to tell people that, yeah, Blake died horribly. But to make something good about that and to be able to start the Be Like Blake Award and be able to take all these guys and show them that although you deal with that 1% all the time, the 1% of people who absolutely just do not like you, there's way more people out there who are supporting you — I think it shows these guys that what they’re doing is worth it. Keep your heads up. You’re doing a good job.”
For officers like Officer Dustin Campbell with the Pontoon Beach Police Department, the opportunity was a “trip of a lifetime.” He is subscribed to a service that emails him every time an officer is killed in the line of duty, and it was a powerful experience to meet their families and learn more about them during National Police Week. He is thankful to the Mustache March for their work.
“D.C. was a bucket list place for me to go. To be able to experience it by myself and just have it to myself, selfish as that sounds, was awesome,” he said. “We meet people on the worst day of their lives every single day. Just having people like Mustache March, it really does mean a lot. There’s people out there that care, even though we meet people when it seems like they don’t.”
For many of the local officers, the K9 memorial ceremony was especially emotional following the death of K9 Odin from Alton last August. Green, who has his own K9 provided to him by Mustache March, added that he felt personally connected to the ceremony.
The local Tyler Timmins Memorial Foundation collaborated with Mustache March 4 PD to send officers on special excursions this year, and Bennett noted that they will continue working to honor the lives of Officers Tyler Timmins and Blake Snyder through initiatives like the National Police Week trip.
As an organization, Mustache March 4 PD hopes to continue to build “rapport” between officers and the community, Bennett said. She thanked the community for their support and encouraged them to follow the official Mustache March 4 PD website and Facebook page to learn more.
“We’ll never let Blake Snyder’s name go away. We’ll never let Tyler Timmins’s name go away,” Bennett added. “We just hope we can continue to do this. Without the support of the community, we wouldn’t be able to, but we hope to continue it.”
