Rylee Owens prepares for an unforgettable trip to EC Best Elementary with Fallon police officer DeWayne Edwards on August 12.
Sara Dowling | NNG
Fallon Police held a contest on their Facebook page last week for all local elementary school students, randomly selecting two winners who would be chauffeured from their doorstep to their first day of school on August 12 in a patrol car with lights and sirens blaring.
The idea came from Captain John Riley, who said he wasn’t sure how he came up with the idea, but he knew he wanted to try it.
Fourth grader Cambria Underwood rode with Sergeant Joshua Schumann to Numa Elementary School and third grader Rylee Owens rode with Officer DeWayne Edwards to EC Best Elementary School.
On the way to school, students stopped to pick up six dozen donuts donated by Walmart for their respective classes.
“I made these fresh this morning just for you,” Walmart operations manager Chris Ceresola told them.
Owens said he wanted to enter the competition because it seemed like fun. Underwood said she asked her mother to enter her in the competition because she thought it would be a cool experience.
“I thought it would be fun to see everyone’s reactions,” she said.
Underwood’s mother, Cristan, is the after-school learning coordinator for the Churchill County School District. She initially thought only her 6-year-old son would be interested, but then her daughter said she wanted to try it, too.
“I both volunteered because it was a great experience to start the first day of school with a police chauffeur,” said Cristan Underwood. “He (the police officer) let my son sit in the car for a few minutes before they drove off.”
A post on the Fallon Police Department’s Facebook page states that more such opportunities will be added throughout the year.
