After thieves stole $1,000 worth of prizes that were to be given
to children attending the Safe Kids Coalition’s Kids in the Park
Day on Wednesday, local firefighters immediately came to the rescue
by donating money to purchase over 100 toys so the children
wouldn’t have to go without.
After thieves stole $1,000 worth of prizes that were to be given to children attending the Safe Kids Coalition’s Kids in the Park Day on Wednesday, local firefighters immediately came to the rescue by donating money to purchase over 100 toys so the children wouldn’t have to go without.
When president Mike Torres walked into the clubhouse at Dunne Park on Wednesday morning to begin setting up for the 11th annual event, he didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
The tables, chairs, boxes and other items volunteers had stored in the room the evening before were all where they had left them… and then out of the corner of his eye he noticed one part of the room looked unusually bare.
Four boxes filled with $1,000 worth of prizes, waiting to be handed out to the approximately 1,400 children who attend the event each year, had vanished at the hands of unknown thieves sometime during the night, Torres said.
“I was shocked,” he said. “(The prizes) added incentive to the day because every half an hour we draw a name of the kids that register and they get a prize and go home happy.
The stolen prizes were purchased with donations Safe Kids volunteers gathered over the last six months, said Colleen Conley, treasurer and co-chair of Safe Kids. Approximately 100 prizes, including balls, tricycles, wagons, skateboards and scooters, were stolen during the burglary, she said. Janet Ghram, a public health nurse, started Kids in the Park Day to educate parents and their children about safety while having fun, Conley said. Public safety organizations, including the California Highway Patrol, police and fire departments, Red Cross and YMCA participate each year, she said.
When firefighters with the Hollister Fire Department, San Benito County Volunteer Fire Department and California Department of Forestry heard about the theft, they immediately took action.
CDF and county volunteers took up a collection of whatever was in their pockets and handed over $40 to Conley on the spot so she could run to the store to buy some last minute prizes.
A few minutes later, Hollister Fire Capt. Mike O’Connor informed Conley city firefighters had decided to dip into their union fund so volunteers could use it to quickly restore the prizes they had lost.
“It’s the right thing to do,” O’Connor said. “Whoever stole the toys did the wrong thing.”
Hollister Fire Capt. Dave Lantis added, “Because that’s why we are who we are.”
The door to the clubhouse was locked when volunteers showed up around 7:30 a.m., Torres said. After close inspection, however, volunteers determined someone had probably jimmied the lock with a screwdriver because they noticed gouge marks around the lock that hadn’t been there before, Conley said.
“The custodian said it has happened before, but if we had known we wouldn’t have put our prizes in here,” she said. “I think it was kids – they must have needed them more than we did. It’s hard to think why someone would do this.”
While the prizes were taken, a box of bicycle helmets, a canopy and food items were left untouched, she said.
The theft couldn’t have had worse timing, but Torres doesn’t believe it has any reflection of the community as a whole, he said.
“It’s just some bad apples in the bunch,” he said. “The community is great, and they’ll show it today… The show will go on.”
Two grand prizes, a boys and a girls bike, were donated by the Masons organization in the form of gift certificates to Muenzer’s Cyclery & Sports Center, Inc. The gift certificates were not stolen and two lucky kids still won the bikes at the end of the day, Conley said.
Volunteers will take more precautions in the future, bringing prizes to the event the day of instead of the night before, Conley said.
But the silver lining to the despicable act was the outpouring of support from the community, she said.
“Once you start telling people, the generosity of people is great,” she said.
Anyone who would like to donate to the Safe Kids Coalition for next year’s Kids in the Park Day can call the San Benito County Public Health Department at (831) 637-5367, or send a check designated to Safe Kids Coalition’s Kids in the Park Day in care of the health department to 439 Fourth St., Hollister, Ca, 95023.
