Morning Journal/Morgan Ahart The Salem Police Department’s K-9 unit has been awarded a $3,000 Walmart Giving Grant.
SALEM — The inaugural K-9 Golf Outing was a major success, and the Salem Police Department’s K-9 unit has received further funding assistance through a Walmart Giving Grant.
“We want to thank everyone for attending, and all of our sponsors that made it possible for our event to be such a big success. I really feel they made it possible for us to have the best possible golf outing,” said Patrolman Mike Garber, handler for K-9 Simon.
The Aug. 20 event had 25 teams register to participate and upwards of 20 volunteers throughout the day assisting with setup, running the event and cleaning up at the end of the day. It even featured a canon-fire start.
All proceeds from the fundraiser were divided between the participating K-9 units of the Salem, Columbiana and St. Clair Township police departments and the Columbiana County Sheriff’s Office for the training and care of their K-9 officers.
Participants were provided with lunch and dinner on-site during the event, with food donated by Jalisco’s and Smokin’ Marty’s Barbeque. The event also successfully found sponsors for all of the holes of the course and received donations for raffle items from as far away as Florida.
“We’re so grateful for all the donations, it allowed us to have some really nice door and hole prizes, and really have such a fun day,” said Garber.
Garber noted that the team behind the event were all golfers themselves, and developed the day’s events based on what they felt would make the best golf outing. He said many of the participants had praised the quality of the event, with some even saying it was the best golf outing they’d ever attended.
The Salem K-9 unit has also received a $3,000 Walmart Giving Grant from the Salem store. These funds will be used to purchase new training equipment for the department to better assist in the training of K-9 officers. Garber noted they would likely be using the funds to replace the department’s bite suit, as the current suit is worn out from age and beginning to develop holes making training more difficult, possibly presenting an unsafe situation to both handlers and K-9 officers if they deteriorate further.
“We’re so grateful for our relationship with the Salem Walmart. We’ve always worked very closely with them and the staff is always willing to help us out with events, like our annual Stuff the Cruiser event through the Fraternal Order of Police,” Garber said of the relationship.
Garber explained that an employee of the store had actually told them about the grant and suggested they apply during a conversation while they were purchasing items for the golf outing.
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