Patches given to young collector
PITTSBURGH — Helping to make the Sweet 16th birthday of an endearing, ill girl special, a couple collected more than 300 police patches from around the country — including representation from Butler County departments — and delivered them Tuesday to her hospital bed.
Scott Bailey, an officer with Aspinwall police, first met the girl, Alicia Hurby of Monongahela, when he delivered Presents from Police to Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh just before Christmas.
Alicia, who is in need of a liver transplant and already has been hospitalized for months, was grateful for the gifts. However, she wants only police patches, which she collects.
Police officers, she said, are her heroes.
“She captured my husband’s heart, all the guys really. Some of them actually cut the patch off their uniform to give her,” said Bailey’s wife, Tina.
The Baileys, who live in West Deer Township, have two autistic sons.
“And so many people have done things for us, we wanted to do something for her. Pay back a little,” Tina Bailey said.
The couple for weeks has been collecting police patches from departments across the nation to give to Alicia. The patches include Cranberry and Adams township as well as representation from every state except Florida and West Virginia.
Alicia’s birthday isn’t until Feb. 23, but arrangements were made for a surprise party Tuesday in the hospital.
