MOUNT VERNON, Iowa (KCRG) – The Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police Department is fundraising for a new police dog after losing one in an accident in February. This year, their annual golf outing was in memoriam of Monster.
Many who came out to the golf event on Friday say they couldn’t have imagined a better way to honor Monster.
As golfers took off, one officer appreciated the show of support.
“Monster was such a personable dog. He was great with everybody but he knew when to work. And so not having him in our community and not even in our department is sorely missed,” said Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police Chief Jason Blinks.
A portion of the funds this year will go toward a memorial to Monster at the police department. The rest of it will go toward getting a new new police dog.
“Monster was deployed for so many different ways, not just for protection for our handler, but for narcotics detecting,” said Chief Blinks.
While police dogs contribute to investigations, they aren’t funded like an officer’s salary or squad car. They join the department largely through donations including from Fareway.
“Hope once we get open we can sit down and have conversations about how we can support in any way possible and create some kind of partnership where we can go back and forth and help each other out as much as possible,” said Kurt Vavricek.
This year’s event had record participation; a sign that the community cared about Monster.
“It’s amazing to see the turn out this year. It’s always a great turnout every year, but this year even more so,” said Chief Blinks. “We actually had to turn some teams away, we were full. So just seeing the out pouring of support is super great.”
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