By Terry Miller
Last Friday, Sept. 18, a retired teacher who goes by the name of Shih and her friend Judy, both residents of Arcadia, presented a large “Thank You” poster and 1,020 face masks to the Arcadia Police Department.
A friend of Shih’s designed the border and Shih completed the project.
“Then with the help of Judy and my sister, we almost went door to door to ask friends, neighbors and others to sign the poster for us. It is time consuming because I am too shy to stand somewhere to ask people I don’t know to write and sign,” Shih said.
“With the help of three friends, we were able to purchase 1,020 masks to donate to our police department. We do this because we care. We believe at least the majority of the police officers care about our community. They are willing to risk their lives to protect us 24/7. When I saw police officers were attacked, my heart ached. We should not let a few bad apples ruin the whole basket. We need their protection. Those who want to defund or dismantle police departments are not thinking rationally. Do we want to further risk the officers’ lives because the criminals will be better equipped than the officers? There are other problems in our society. We can’t blame everything on the officers,” Shih continued.
“I am one of the volunteers at the police department. I always have a fond memory of an officer who loaned me his jacket during one cold night when I was summoned to interpret at the crime scene because I was shivering even though I had a sweater on. He really warmed my heart. We all have the responsibility to show the positive side of everything.”
