The La Mesa Police Department Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol Program is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. This valuable program began with 20 dedicated citizens in August of 1994. The program has grown throughout the past 30 years and senior volunteers provide services to assist the La Mesa Police Department with items such as: the YANA program, vacation home checks, writing citations, removal of nuisance signs, assist at community events with crowd and traffic control and more!
The Chamber partnered with Hooleys Public House and California Coast Credit Union to produce a 30th anniversary mixer and celebration on Wednesday, June 5th. We invited members of the Senior Patrol team, their guests and Chamber members to join in this evening celebration. The Chamber presented gifts to each of them, as well as certificates signed by Mayor Arapostathis presented by Vice Mayor Laura Lothian. A warm welcome was offered by the Chamber, Tommy Morales, Branch Manager of the La Mesa California Coast Credit Union branch was on hand to also welcome the crowd and share his congratulations. Police Chief Ray Sweeney joined us to provide the background on the program, as well as discuss the program’s success. We want to thank Hooleys owner, Craig McDonald for graciously helping underwrite a portion of the evening menu and California Coast Credit Union who partnered with the Chamber to produce the evening.
We were thrilled to have (8) of the RSVP Program members in attendance: Mike Boatright, Tita Boatright, Johnny Florez, Tootie Gomez, Paul Hitchcock, Pat Olow, Doug Reed, and Clarke Stillwagen. We are proud to announce that this group of (8) volunteers represented a combined total of 60 ½ years volunteered to La Mesa and a combined total of 18,669 volunteer hours to the La Mesa community. What an amazing accomplishment!
Congratulations to the Retired Senior Volunteer Patrol members and a HUGE “round of applause” to celebrate and thank each of them for their dedication and commitment to our La Mesa community!