Harbor Police officers treated to treats made by supporters
With the coronavirus crisis dominating news and deaths mounting daily, a group of San Diego Harbor Police supporters decided to launch a kitchen initiative to support those on the front lines.
Board members of the Port of San Diego Harbor Police Foundation broke out their supplies of sugar, f lour, butter and other ingredients and baked trays of goodies for about 150 Harbor Police officers and staff.
The nine men and women, some with help from family members, baked about 600 cookies and packaged them in Ziploc bags with notes of thanks. Three board members delivered the huge box of sweets to the home of Harbor Police Chief Mark Stainbrook on Monday.
A note on the box read: “A special thank you to all of the officers and staff of the San Diego Harbor Police for your heroic work during this new coronavirus pandemic. Your foundation board members baked and created this small token of appreciation ... Enjoy!”
Stainbrook surprised his officers with the care package on Tuesday. It couldn’t
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have come at a better time for police force members, who just learned that one of their own had tested positive for COVID-19.
“My children and I came up with the idea of baking for the police when discussing how we could contribute to San Diego’s first responders who are so stressed during these challenging times,” explained board member Ray Drasnin ,asan Diego-based publicist.
Board Chair Jeffrey Wohler said, “These days, small gestures can make a big impact.”
Harbor Police spokesman Sgt. Timothy De La Peña said the cookies were divvied up among officers on all shifts, dispatchers and others who were appreciative
that board members themselves had made them.
Harbor Police also had a special occasion to celebrate. Its dispatch center logged its one millionth call since the computerized system was installed nearly 20 years ago.
Another Kennedy loss: As if there isn’t enough bad news circulating, another tragedy has beset the Kennedy family. Robert F. Kennedy’s granddaughter Maeve Kennedy Townsend Mckean, 40, and her 8-yearold son, Gideon, drowned in a canoeing accident. The family was sheltering in place in Maeve’s mother’s cottage on Chesapeake Bay near Washington, D.C., where Maeve served as executive director of the Georgetown University Global Health Initiative.
She had lived in San Diego for about three years
after returning in 2002 from Peace Corps work in Mozambique, Africa.
Maeve moved here, recalled family friend Carolyn Mitrovich, because she wanted to do something different, having grown up on the East Coast as part of the high-profile Kennedy clan. Carolyn’s father, George Mitrovich, who passed away last July, had worked for RFK as a campaign aide and was quick to connect Maeve with U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-calif. She accepted a job in Feinstein’s San Diego office.
Perhaps drawing inspiration
from the Irish mythological Maeve, queen of the fairies, Maeve was a free spirit who had dyed her hair pink and preferred jeans and T-shirts to fashionable trends at the time, Carolyn said. “She very much wanted to be Maeve” — not a Kennedy stereotype.
Her San Diego sojourn changed the course of Maeve’s life because the young girl, who had told Mitrovich she never wanted to get married or have children,
met her future husband, David Mckean, while they worked here for Sen. Feinstein. David is the son of San Diego residents Dinah Mckean and John Mckean.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Maeve’s mother and former Maryland lieutenant governor, spoke at the memorial for George Mitrovich and expressed her gratitude to him for giving her a son-in-law and three young grandchildren.
The canoeing tragedy
unfolded April 2 after a ball bounced into the water during a game of kickball, David posted on his Facebook page. When Maeve and her son went to retrieve it, their canoe was swept away in high winds. Later that day it was recovered overturned. On Monday, searchers located Maeve’s body in 25 feet of water. Her son was recovered about 2,000 feet away Wednesday afternoon.
diane.bell@sduniontribune.com