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TIM E. CURRAN
THE MID-COUNTY MEMO
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| Adam Russell, a 15-year-old freshman at Madison High School delivers the more than 300 stuffed animals to East Precinct for police to give to kids in need. Mid-county Memo photo/Tim E. Curran |
Last month, 15-year-old Adam Russell presented more than 350 stuffed animals he collected in a little more than a month to East Precinct officers to give to children in traumatic situations.
A freshman at east Portland's Madison High School, Russell garnered donations from family members, friends, and people he knows at school and strangers. He was surprised at the response. “I didn't know how many people would actually do it. It surprised me just how many people did [donate] once they found out about it,” Russell said.
Jennifer Olson, Adam's mom said this isn't his first community project by any means. He regularly volunteers with the Madison South Neighborhood Association, where his grandmother, Jan Zugman, is very involved. He helps with the group's annual cleanups; he collects returnable cans and bottles and donates 90 percent of the proceeds to the group. “Adam has a real need to protect and he has a community services mind and so we were brainstorming some ideas and he chose this one,” Olson said.
John Maul, an East Precinct patrol officer who accepted the toys on behalf of police, said that for more than 20 years, Portland police regularly give stuffed animals to kids in ugly situations. “This is going to make a lotta difference for a lot of kids; less fortunate kids,” Maul said. “When I come across [these] kids, its probably the worst days of their lives.”
Whether removing children from unsanitary, squalid conditions in a home, or because parents cannot, or are not providing a safe environment, kids are taken from parents on a regular basis, Maul said.
“When you have to take a kid away from parents, for whatever reason, that's pretty traumatizing on them,” Maul said. “So, to give them one little reason to smile, to make sure they realize police aren't the bad guys; to give them something to focus on and take with them where they're going, away from their parents, that's the goal.”
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