Children donate $3,000 toward city police dog
The dog days of summer have already happened for one vacation Bible school class.
The 277 children of First United Methodist Church of Butler’s VBS classes raised $3,004.26 between June 18 and 22 and donated it to the Butler Police Department for the purchase of two police dogs.
According to Jayme Steighner, children’s director at First United Methodist, “ We just talked about it every morning.”
“We had a dog cage set up outside the sanctuary,” said Steighner. “and they threw their money in the dog cage each day. It was cute. We had one little girl bring her pink piggy bank and shake it over the dog cage.”
Steighner said the idea to raise money for the police dogs came from the Rev. David Panther, First United’s senior pastor, after he received a letter from Butler Mayor Maggie Stock.
“Every year we pick something different,” said Steighner of the VBS donations. “This was the first year we have done a local mission. Last year we raised money for the storm victims out west.”
“It was great to see them when they reached their goal. They were standing in the pews, jumping up, giving each other high fives,” Steighner said.
The students received a chance to see a police dog June 22 at the church, when Stock, Butler Police Chief Ron Fierst, Officer Brian Grooms and Evans City Police Sgt. Don Myers and his police dog, Chaos, stopped by the church to thank the students and show off Chaos.
“It was really great to see the kids excited, knowing they had a small part in purchasing these dogs and being able to see them at work come fall,” Stock said.
“They actually wanted to see ‘their dog.’ I had to tell them the city doesn’t actually have the dog just yet,” she said.
“They were so excited to see Chaos. Of course, he plays to the crowd,” Stock said.
“They told us when the dogs come in the fall, the children will be able to attend the event to introduce the dogs to the city,” said Steighner.
Stock said the introduction will happen.
“I was just absolutely so touched by their efforts,” she said. “I was just so impressed in their interest in a city project, bringing their piggy bank money in to help us all out.
“Whenever we have the dog here and trained, part of my plan is we have had so many contributors we want to have a ‘sit and shake’ event to meet the officer that is going to be the dog handler and meet the dog. That will be a lot of fun,” the mayor said.
Fierst said the department hopes to acquire two police dogs, the first by the end of August or the beginning of September.
He said the department hopes to acquire a German shepherd which will be matched with a Butler police officer. Both will then train at the City of Pittsburgh’s canine academy for 12 to 15 weeks. A second dog will be purchased in February.
He said a rough estimate of the cost of the two dogs including training, equipping them, feeding them and the cost of the dogs themselves would be about $17,000 to $20,000 each.
“We hope to have two fully trained police dogs by May of next year,” said Fierst. They will have dual responsibilities, he said, with both patrol and drug detection duties.
The dogs are being paid for solely through contributions of individuals, businesses and organizations, he said.
As for the church Bible school students’ contribution, Fierst said, “They really embraced the program. We’ve been very fortunate.”
“It’s like a community dog. Everybody has a little part in it. There will be a lot of community relations events they will attend,” said Fierst.
