WEBCOPY
The Shepherd Police Department is taking a step to help parents, caretakers, and guardians who have children with special needs by giving away car stickers.
The stickers are meant to help first responders in case of an emergency situation, such as a car crash.
The sticker (pictured above) is meant to go on the back of vehicles and it comes with a mini-medical card that needs to be filled out and put in the glove compartment.
Luke Sawyer is the Chief of Police and came across the idea when his family travelled to Tennessee this summer.
“I’m the dad of some special needs kids and I’ve always thought ‘man there’s something we should do’, but wasn’t exactly sure what to do,” he said.
Then he was walking in a parking lot and seen a sticker “child with special needs on board” on the back of a vehicle and he knew that it was the idea he had been looking for.
With luck on his side, he returned to work and someone had donated a lump sum of money to the police department and told them “to just use it to help people.”
So, the department made these stickers.
Sawyer said one of the most important aspects of the medical card is at the bottom where it asks if the child is verbal or nonverbal.
“If a child is not speaking and not crying, but is really really upset that’s important for us to know that maybe they’re not speaking because they’re nonverbal instead of thinking something is wrong,” Sawyer said.
The Shepherd police department doesn’t want this to be a one time thing. Sawyer said once they run out of stickers, they’re going to try to get donations to make more. With the next batch of stickers, Sawyer wants to change the word “child” to “person”
“We’ve gotten feedback from people, many of whom are like, ‘hey I don’t have a child but I have an adult with special needs’ and they’re worried that if they put a child sticker on their car a first responder would be looking for a child,” he said.
People from all over Michigan, as well as people from other states, have been contacting the office so they can get a sticker. Sawyer said that they’re doing their best to give it out to everyone that needs one, but they are asking for postage if you’re from out of the area.
Anyone can get a free sticker by stopping at the Shepherd office, which is located at 251 W Wright Ave, Shepherd, MI 48883.