Troy 30-C D.A.R.E. Officer Honored With Parade

Photo: Troy Shorewood Elementary School students and staff held an indoor parade for Shorewood Police Officer, Troy D.A.R.E. Officer Kim Giugler, as she retired from her D.A.R.E. Officer position. Students from left: Benni Kalember, Rafael Campos, Emilia Dominguez, Lexi Gonzalez, Nora Glisson, Ariana Bibian, Sophie Koerner and Abbi Wagner. Also pictured are Teaching Assistant Anna Raimondi and Teacher Vicki Petrovic.

Troy School District 30-C’s D.A.R.E. Officer Kim Giugler was honored with a parade at Troy Shorewood Elementary School this spring as she retires from the position.

Giugler has been with the D.A.R.E. program, which teaches students how to make good decisions for safe and healthy living, for 18 years at the Troy school and other area schools. She even drives up to an Antioch school on her days off to offer her services there. Guigler is not retiring from the police department – only from her duties as D.A.R.E. Officer.

“It’s been fun every day,” Giugler said before the parade.

Giugler said if there was one thing she hopes students have taken away from the program over the years, it is to be kind to each other.

“Show people you care each and every day,” she said.

On parade day, students from every classroom lined the hallways from the gymnasium to the cafeteria, clapping and giving fives and drumming on overturned buckets to the beat. Music teacher Jonathan Greene played the trumpet during the procession, and several Shorewood Police Department officers participated in a show of support.

“We will miss her terribly,” Principal Colleen Connolly said.

Two important things students learned through the program, administrators and teachers said, was about “stranger danger” and how to stand up to bullies. The school’s new D.A.R.E. Officer is Officer Wes Barlog from the Shorewood Police Department.

The school also gave special thanks to Home Cut Donuts in Joliet.