CAMAS — With the deaths of police officers making national headlines around the country in recent weeks, Washougal Mayor Sean Guard and Camas Mayor Scott Higgins wanted to make sure local law enforcement officers felt appreciated.
The mayors spoke Tuesday afternoon about putting on a joint celebration of police officers from the two cities, and a little more than 24 hours later, members of both cities’ departments were standing around Goot Park in Camas chatting with residents and chowing down on some specially delivered pizza.
“There are a lot of uncertain days for some of our government employees, specifically, police officers,” Guard said standing on a park bench to a crowd of 70-plus. “We’re all behind you.”
Higgins said he feels both departments have done a great job of earning the respect and trust of the community.
Elected officials from both cities were in attendance, along with Camas Police Chief Mitch Lackey and Washougal Police Chief Ron Mitchell. Lackey said the support of the community means more than anything, and Mitchell thanked everyone for coming, including fellow first responders.
Shortly after officers from both departments gathered in the park, two fire trucks and two mobile intensive care units pulled up to the park, blaring sirens and blasting horns. Guard and Higgins wanted to make sure they fed the officers and secured some donated pizza from Papa Murphy’s. The only issue with that was they needed people to cook it. Enter the Camas-Washougal Fire Department.
“They have big ovens,” Guard said. “When we asked them to help, they were thankful to be a part of this.”
The camaraderie among the different government agencies and cities was the reason Jamie Damon of Washougal brought her three children to the park on Wednesday.
“It’s great for them to see the community come together to honor these people,” said Damon, whose brother is a law enforcement officer in California.
Damon walked around with her three kids — Brayden, 11, Joshua, 8, and Julianna, 4 — while they thanked police officers for their work and talked with them about how they protect the community. They even got some police stickers.
Washougal and Camas joining forces is something Higgins is used to seeing.
“It didn’t surprise me,” he said. “Camas and Washougal are such special communities. We have a long history of working together. It warms your heart to see something you believe is actually true.”
Guard said he was happy with the turnout, and happy to see officers from different departments interacting and meeting community members.
“There’s no good time or bad time to do something like this,” he said. “It’s a low point right now for officers everywhere. They see people, most often, at their absolute worst of times. To see everyone talking and smiling is very heartening. This isn’t their normal day. We don’t do this enough.”
