SPD partners with 4-H club to collect stuffed animals for children
The Starkville Police Department has partnered with the Oktibbeha County Clover Dawgs to collect stuffed animals for children in emergency situations.
The stuffed animals will be used to comfort children in emergency situations. Teddy bears help to establish trust with children during situations where first responders are dispatched. It can also provide children with something to cling to and confide in after the experience.
Courtney Headley is the one in charge of the Oktibbeha County Clover Dawgs 4-H Club and she said youth and children are very important to her, which is why she had her club partner with SPD to collect stuffed animals for children who are involved in emergency situations.
“With leading a youth organization, it’s very important to me to let children know that our law enforcement is a group of safe people and they don’t have to be afraid,” said Headley. “So, I just want to give that comfort back to the children in the event that they are in traumatic situations. Youth are very important to me, and our 4-Hers work hard towards community service and it is just a great partnership to do. When I met with Chief [Mark] Ballard virtually, he was really excited about doing this and he didn’t want it to be a one-time thing. He really loved the idea of trying to connect that law enforcement and community effort.”
For its first year in existence, Headley wants 15 tubs filled with stuffed animals. However, she said they will gladly accept as many as they can collect.
“So, our goal is going to be to collect 15 tubs of stuffed animals. They need to be new and no larger than 12 inches, so that they don’t take up too much space inside of the officers’ patrol vehicles,” said Headley.
Robinson said. “The big part of it is less students came back to campus, so you’ve got a big part of students that decided to stay home and they’re doing classes online. Well, a lot of the students were also employees, so when they stay home and don’t come back for school, then we lose instantly a lot of our employees. It’s been a real challenge. Sales continue to climb, and we’re having to limit our seating capacity just to make sure that everyone gets the kind of service that we want to be able to give just because we don’t have enough staff.”
However, Robinson says a lot of the staffing woes do not come from COVID caution, but people are able to collect unemployment from the state and federal government, which, sometimes, can be more than what an hourly employee makes each week. Georgia Blue has competitive rates and does not start out at minimum wage for the kitchen staff – most start at $10 an hour.
“Younger people seem to take COVID more in stride than the older generation does,” Robinson said. “Because of that, a lot of our staffing problems are not because of fear of COVID itself, but a lot of it has been people have gotten stimulus money, unemployment money, those kinds of things to where honestly they were making more money staying at home. So we are looking for anyone who really wants to work. If people bring in their check stub [from another job] and we hire you, we guarantee you 50 cents more an hour than you’re making wherever you are now. We want the very best.”
Nowadays, it is very crucial to see businesses succeed – especially when tomorrow is so uncertain. Sales are important but without a full staff to really hold everything down and give certain efforts, the sales that businesses get could easily be lost because customers will no longer feel valued or like the service is any good.