Backpacks, books donated to sheriff’s department

The Shawano County Sheriff’s Department will be able to offer children in traumatic situations more than words with the help of the Reach a Child program.

Reach a Child presented Sheriff Adam Bieber and his staff 30 backpacks, each containing 15 drawstring backpacks and 15 children’s books, along with 300 additional books for his deputies to use and provide for children who are involved in domestic abuse situations, accidents and other situations where a child might be confused about what’s going on. The donation was made possible with the help of the Shawano Area Community Foundation and AT&T.

Reach a Child spokesman Cory Erickson said the program was founded in 2006, and so far, it has reached 250 law enforcement agencies, fire departments and emergency services programs. Shawano County received a donation from the program years ago, but Reach a Child has received a big boost through AT&T recently, allowing the program to expand even further.

“Who can’t get excited about helping kids in crisis?” Erickson said at a presentation May 3 at the sheriff’s office. “That’s what motivates us and gets us excited.”

Erickson related a story about a fire chief in Middleton who regularly showcased his department’s various apparatus used to save lives, including the Jaws of Life, but his favorite piece was not something to put out fires or extract accident victims. Erickson said the fire chief held up a Dr. Seuss book of ABCs.

“He went on to tell a story that he, as fire chief, was on a home fire, and there was a 4-year-old girl who was being displaced by the fire,” Erickson said. “He sat down with her and read that book to her, and she said, ‘I want to read it again.’ He read it to her four times, distracting her from the crisis that was going on around her. That’s a story I’ll never forget.”

Reach a Child’s mission is to have a backpack in every first responder vehicle in Wisconsin, according to Erickson. He noted that it will serve the sheriff’s deputies just as well as any other tool they have in their vehicles.

“If you’re working with a child in crisis and you’re trying to distract that child from a domestic dispute, a home fire, a car accident — you take the books, put them in front of the child, and they’ll probably know which book is going to be best for them,” Erickson said. “If the child is not a reader, you sit down and read the book to the child. When you’re finished, you give the child the book in a drawstring backpack, and he or she can put the book on their back and hopefully walk away fully distracted from that crisis.”

Even during the pandemic, Reach a Child, based in Madison, was able to distribute over 15,000 books around the state in 2020. The year before, 26,000 books were handed out to agencies, according to Erickson. He noted that, once the county runs out of books, officials can contact Reach a Child to get more.

Erickson noted that the pandemic has been tough on law enforcement, too, and expressed his appreciation to Bieber and his deputies for their hard work to keep the public safe.

Bieber expressed his appreciation for the generous donation and said the books and backpacks would be put to good use.

“We do respond to some serious incidents, and kids are involved most of the time, whether it’s a car crash or domestic violence or a medical emergency,” Bieber said. “I remember going to an incident where a father had a heart attack, and the kids were just sitting there watching that. How traumatic is that? These (books) are a perfect distraction to hand out to kids. If you don’t distract them, it will be in their minds and traumatize them.”

Bieber noted there have been other things that have been donated by community members to hand out to children, but the Reach a Child items will provide comfort on every call instead of waiting for more items to be given.

“Situations like that, it’s great to have this because a lot of times, we don’t have anything to give, and giving a book and backpack is good, because kids like that kind of stuff,” Erickson said. “We do have community members drop off stuff like teddy bears from time to time, but this is a great resource, as well.”

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com