Light bulb giveaway Thursday to encourage unity
Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones (right) with former sheriffs (from left) Felix Ramon and John Young, announced a blue light bulb giveaway as part of the ‘Citizens Uniting with Blue’ project.
MOSES LAKE — Personnel from the Grant County Sheriff’s Office and other partnering agencies will be giving away blue light bulbs Thursday to encourage Grant County residents, law enforcement and EMS to express unity with each other.
The “Citizens Uniting with Blue” campaign (CUB) will distribute 4,000 blue light bulbs to residents free of charge, while supplies last, beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday at a number of locations around the county. The sheriff’s office is partnering with Paul Lauzier Foundation on the project.
Jones announced the project at a press conference Tuesday afternoon. He was joined by retired Grant County Sheriffs John Young and Felix Ramon.
There will be four distribution locations in Moses Lake. They include the Penn Plaza at the entrance to Walmart, 1005 North Stratford Rd.; the parking lot at Kayser’s Chapel, 831 South Pioneer Way; Doolittle Dream Park on Patton Boulevard and Lep-Re-Kon Harvest Foods, 2709 W. Broadway Ave.
Other locations include Jack’s 4 Corners station, 630 East Ave. in Grand Coulee and the Coulee City town hall, 501 West Main St. Others are Moore Furniture, 328 Southwest Basin Street, Ephrata; the Grant County Fire District No. 7 station in Soap Lake, the Quincy Community Center, 115 F St.; Royal City’s city park, Camelia Street; the Grant County Fire District No. 4 station, 114 North Oak St. in Warden and Lep-Re-Kon Harvest Foods, 102 Brian Ave., Mattawa.
Residents will be asked to display the light, outdoors or indoors.
The project grew out of a statement released by Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones in the wake of the fatal shooting of five police officers in Dallas July 7. Jones asked Grant County residents to light a candle or use a blue porch light to show support for the officers and their families. He got a lot of calls from residents who couldn’t find a blue light bulb, he said.
Jones was already working on a project to encourage all Grant County residents to display a blue light to show support for law enforcement. He noted the law enforcement custom of wearing a black band on the badge for a few days when an officer is killed in the line of duty. Grant County sheriff’s deputies wore that black band from July 7-26, almost three weeks, Jones said.
“Grant County is a very diverse and close-knit county. I am pleased to say that our local law enforcement agencies are greatly supported by the communities that we serve.
“I am a firm believer that continuing to unite the citizens and law enforcement is crucial. And I believe that now is the time to further unite Grant County and city residents with law enforcement.”
Jones said he’s stressing unity. “This campaign is not about picking sides, but rather partnering with the citizens we serve.”
Jones said he’s heard of agencies in other states working on similar projects, but this is the biggest project he’s heard of in Washington.