RADKids, Toys For Tots A Holiday Success

Wakefield Police Chief Richard Smith released the department's December highlights, including two successful programs:

School Resource Officers Kelley Tobyne and Jason Skillings ran a “RADKids” program over the holiday vacation week. This was a great indoor opportunity for the kids (as well as the parents) during a very cold stretch of weather. Students were taught safety skills that were centered on the nationally recognized “RADKids” program, which teaches, trains, and empowers children with real skills so they can recognize, avoid, resist, and if necessary escape violence or harm. Kids were learning and building each day, culminating in a final physical test where they would have to use verbal and defensive skills to break free from a potential abductor and run to a parent. This is a tremendous amount of work and we greatly appreciate their efforts.

We once again ran our annual “Toys for Tots” campaign that proved to be another very successful season with generous donations from our citizens. The lobby was full on a daily basis and we were able to pack the back of our large command vehicle on multiple occasions for delivery. We would like to especially thank Detective Ken Silva for his hard work in this very special area along with all of our staff that pitched into help make a better holiday season for those that are less fortunate.