Cheryl Newland kept a handful of worms in the pocket of her pink jacket, repeatedly replacing the bait on her 9-year-old granddaughter’s fishing hook Wednesday morning.
Newland said she was on “worm duty” at the Columbus Police Department’s 2nd annual Hook a Kid on Fishing clinic.
The crisp morning breeze created a perfect setting Wednesday for 30 Bartholomew County kids and Columbus police officers to fish in the lake in front of the Toyota Material Handling plant.
“The kids love to fish,” Newland said of her granddaughters. “It’s good for the kids to know that they don’t need to be afraid of the police. The police are there to help them and be with them — it’s important for kids to know that.”
And that’s just the purpose that Columbus Police Sgt. Julie Quesenbery said the department is trying to achieve through the outdoor event.
“The whole point is to build relationships with youth and we get to do that today through fishing,” Quesenbery said. “For some of these kids, it’s their first time ever fishing and a police officer gets to be the one who helps them reel it in.”
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
