More than 800 attend event honoring area cops

More than 825 people were served at the “Lounge with Law Enforcement” event, held at New Prague’s Memorial Park on Thursday, Aug. 11.

The event was organized to show support for law enforcement officials in both Scott and Le Sueur counties. All police and sheriff’s departments from the two counties were invited, and most were represented at the event. Organizers Kacey Wilcox and Patricia Schug were delighted with the turnout and with how things went. Food was provided by a number of businesses and organizations, and there were 825 meals served. Members of the public could earn a ticket by making a donation to the local food shelves, and there were 675 of those tickets distributed. The rest of the meals were served to law enforcement officers and their families and to event volunteers.

The officers and deputies were served first, and when they finished, many of them went through the line to shake hands and thank those who attended.

“I think it went very well,” said New Prague Police Chief Jim Gareis. “It was well-attended and the community support was great. I know the officers had a lot of good comments from the support they saw.”

One part of the event was a silent auction for donated prizes. The auction and also a dunk tank that gave people a chance to dunk law enforcement officers raised more than $2,600. A live auction was held for the first opportunity to throw a ball at the dunk tank, and Steve “Slick” Duban, owner of Flipside Grille and Bar in New Prague, offered up $100 to dunk Le Sueur County Sheriff Dave Tietz. He then allowed a group of youngsters to take his turn throwing. Scott County Sheriff Luke Hennen and several other police officers also took turns in the tank.

Money raised at the silent auction and dunk tank will be split evenly between the Sheriff’s Youth Project of Le Sueur County and the Scott County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Hotel Voucher program.

More than 2,500 pounds of food was collected, and they are being donated to various food shelves in each of the counties.

The event grew out of a Facebook post made by Schug asking what the community could do to show its support for local law enforcement. There were a lot of positive comments and Schug and Wilcox worked together with local law enforcement and other volunteers to organize the event.

“We were also able to offer goodie bags of donated items to each of the officers,” Wilcox said. “They were all so thankful and they are all looking forward to next year's event.”

Wilcox said Gareis, along with Hennen and Tietz, are on board with making this an annual event.