Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 4, April 2003

Copyright 2003 Seattle Sun. Please feel free to use the article and photos below in your research. Be sure to quote the Seattle Sun as your source.

Students lend 'heroes' a hand

By SUSAN PARK

A group of 15 college students recently volunteered to spend their Saturday afternoon on March 8 washing police cars at the North Precinct.

The group is the Seattle chapter of the Arnold Air Society a national community service organization made up of Air Force ROTC cadets. The Seattle chapter's members come from the University of Washington, Seattle Pacific University and Seattle University. Sheryll Callejo, a junior at the UW, is the local chapter's squadron commander.

Traci Cooper, a UW junior who heads the chapter's service projects, said the goal this year was to find "true heroes" to help. They chose the North Precinct after learning that officers there have had to wash their own cars for the past couple of years due to budget cutbacks. "One of our members' dad is a retired police officer who worked at the North Precinct," Cooper explained.

Police Sgt. Mike Edwards said the officers at the North Precinct were surprised and touched that college students would offer to wash their cars. "It's absolutely awesome for these young people to take time out to do this for us," he said. "It's been the talk of the precinct all day."