DOUGHNUT DAY
Boy, giving treats to police officers, stops in Spa City
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Tyler Carach has a simple goal — give a doughnut to every police officer in the U.S.
Carach, 9, got a little closer Tuesday to meeting that goal, delivering the treats — with the help of Dunkin’ Donuts — to the Saratoga Springs Police Department.
Carach began his journey almost a year ago in his hometown, which is roughly an hour north of Pensacola, Fla.
“We were in a local store. We only have one little local store. There’s no gas there. It’s just like a tiny mini mart, if you will,” Sheena Carach, Tyler’s mother, said. “He saw four deputies and he was like, ‘Mom you know cops favorite drink is coffee and their favorite food is doughnuts right?’ And, of course, I laughed.”
Tyler asked if he could use his allowance to buy mini doughnuts for the officers; his mother readily agreed to the request.
She said the deputies were overwhelmed with emotion at Tyler’s kindness, which confused him.
“He said ‘Mom, why were they so happy over a snack? I get snacks all the time.’” Sheena said. “So I explained to him that a lot of people, unfortunately, today choose to judge a whole by a few. And that if you choose to do that, you would never have anyone because we’ve all had a bad doctor or a bad lawyer or a bad teacher; and if we choose to judge them all by that one
bad [person] or that handful of bad [people,] we wouldn’t have anybody.”
After hearing that, Tyler informed his mother of his goal: to give a doughnut to every cop in America. His mom was surprised by her son’s dream.
“He kept saying it. He was just very persistent .... that’s what he was going to do. He was going to thank every single cop in America, so I suggested that we start local and kind of just see what happens. We started local and it was kind of like a snowball effect and it took off,” said Sheena. “Here we are almost a year later on a six-week road trip.”
So far Tyler has visited police stations in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.
“It’s just always nice to know that we’re positively thought about,” said city police Lt. Robert Jillson. “It’s always good, especially in this day in age, to be acknowledged for the work that we do and to know there’s still positive people out there that are appreciative of what we do.”
This trip began June 26, and it’ll end by Aug. 7 with visits to police stations in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland and New Jersey.
Sheena said the Carachs try to find a local sponsor for the doughnuts.
“Obviously that’s the biggest cost other than travel. And then we just fund the travel ourselves. We’ve been really blessed that most of the doughnut companies we’ve reached out to have just loved what Tyler’s doing, so they have been more than supportive,” said Sheena.
Tom Burke, who described himself as a Dunkin’ Donuts operator, was at the police station Tuesday morning. The Burke Network operates a Dunkin’ Donuts in Malta.
“Dunkin Donuts and the Burke Network support local law enforcement of all forms, especially our own local law enforcement. This is just our way of showing appreciation for everything they do in our own local community,” Burke said. “This is a great cause and there is nothing better than being able to support the ones that truly support us day in and day out.”
Recently, the Carach family started a GoFundMe page to help with the costs for a future trip to Texas, Nevada, New Mexico and California.
“We’ve just been blessed. We do everything that we can do to make this stay possible,” said Sheena. “My husband works a lot. We just make it happen, and through awesome supporters in the communities. It’s just been incredible.”
By the time August rolls around, Tyler will have delivered over 20,000 donuts to law enforcement in one year.
Tyler has a simple reason for giving doughnuts to police officers: “Because cops are my best friends,” he said.