MLPD raises money to help people in need

MOSES LAKE — If you were expecting Moses Lake Police Department officers in shorts and tank tops with sponges and buckets washing cars, well, it wasn’t that kind of fundraiser the MLPD held Monday afternoon at Sun Splash Car Wash on N. Stratford Road.

“We’ve been wanting to do this for a year or two. But then when COVID hit, we weren’t really getting anyone out here,” said Sun Splash Manager Taylor Peterson. “We support the police and this one to get them out here and kind of give back and help them out in any way we can.”

So Peterson offered the car wash to the MLPD to help raise money for the Blue Bridge Program, a privately funded initiative that gives every patrol officer a prepaid debit card loaded with $100 to help people in need of everything from gas in the tank to a meal. In addition, Sun Splash donated $1 from every car wash on Monday to the MLPD, with officers taking donations for the program as well.

“It's all privately funded. There's no tax dollars that are involved in the program. So it has to be pretty self-sufficient,” said MLPD Capt. Mike Williams.

Williams explained that with gas as expensive as it is right now, it’s not uncommon for people to find themselves unable to get to where they need to go because they’ve run out of gas and don’t have money to get any more.

“We're kind of between every place that people are wanting to go,” Williams said.

For more information on the Blue Bridge program, check out the organization’s website at www.bluebridgealliance.org. To help the MLPD, donate here at https://bluebridgealliance.org/moseslakewapd/.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.