The Durant Rotary Club recently collected Teddy Bears that were donated to the Durant Police Department to give to children who encounter police.
Crystal Tatum, Rotary Club president, said she had the idea because of when she was a Rotarian in Rockwall, Texas, Rotarians collected Teddy Bears for police She spoke to Durant Police Chief Jesse Petty about the program in Rockwall.
“We gathered the Teddy Bears for the police officers to put in their trunks so when there was a traffic stop and there was children in the car that they would be able to give the child or children a Teddy Bear to take some of the fear that they may have had with the stop,” Tatum said. “So, with the February random acts of kindness, we did that after Chief Petty had spoken to a Durant Rotary meeting and I asked him if that would be something that he would consider letting us do and share with them.”
Rotarians then placed boxes for the Teddy Bears at Premiere Wealth Advisors and First Texoma National Bank, and more than 100 Teddy Bears were collected that were then taken to the Durant Police Department, according to Tatum.
“They were very appreciative, and I think very surprised at the amount of Teddy Bears that we brought in,” Tatum said.
“Of course, our motto is, service above self and so not knowing how many squad cars there are with the Durant Police, but I know that there’s enough to equip them for quite a while and of course, if they run out of Teddy Bears, we can do this again because the community really came together. It was great, especially after Valentine’s Day. All of the Teddy Bears were 50 and 60 percent off. So, people just gathered them up and brought them in and deposited them at the couple of places that we had around the community.”
Tatum hopes this will be an annual event.
“I know that it does help kids,” Tatum said. “When we did this in Texas, it was amazing. The police officers were just as surprised because people don’t think of those kind of things and traffic stops are very scary for young children as well as adults. But it’s the young children when they see a police officer, they don’t know what to think. So, it gives them some calmness and some security while the police officer is conducting the stop.”
Petty said that he is appreciative of the partnership of civic groups reaching out and being a part of the community because the police department wants to be a part of the community as well.
“So, that just brings it all together when we’re able to do projects or initiatives together as a community and these Teddy Bears will be used in patrol cars or any other critical events or incidents or just regular traffic stops and maybe brighten a child’s day or take a little less of the edge off whatever situation that they may be involved in at the moment,” Petty said.
