By Ruthanne Johnson
MONTE VISTA—The Monte Vista Rotary Club stepped up in a big way for the Monte Vista Police Department K-9 unit. Last week, the club donated $2,000 in support of the police department’s new K-9 Fund.
“Bob Galey from Calvary Baptist Church is on Rotary and is on the board for the MV Police K9 Fund,” stated Police Chief John Rosecran in a recent email. “He got the ball rolling as part of our fundraising efforts, and Corporal [Heath] Hart and I gave a presentation to Rotary and the membership recommended a donation.”
“Monte Vista really is full of good people and Rotary is no exception,” Rosecrans said.
Rosecrans said he suggested a donation of only $300 to $500. “They came back with $2,000, [and] I was really moved by the gift.”
The money came from proceeds the club raised during its annual gun show at the Ski Hi Complex in October and will likely be kept in a pot and added to for later use in replacing a dog or car, “or to retrain a team should I lose a handler or a dog,” Rosecrans said.
Monte Vista’s two K-9 teams— which include a yellow lab named Jake and a black lab named Ruckus— serve the community wherever they are needed: schools, businesses, street crime, etc. Ruckus has been on at least 10 deployments, four of which resulted in busts.
“The largest single-issue facing Monte in the beginning of 2017 was drugs and the associative crimes with drugs in the eyes of the citizens,” Rosecrans said. “We take this seriously and will continue to do so.”