Everyone has heard the phrase ‘a dog is a man’s best friend’. They are incredibly smart, able to learn, and able to adapt. This is all to show why a job was created for them on the police force
To have a K-9 unit is very pricey, so the York County Sheriff’s Office came up with a way to sponsor the unit.
The spaghetti dinner is an annual fundraiser that takes place in the Fall.
This year’s fundraiser was the 9th annual event, and it was the largest in their history. Last year, 1,500 people attended, but this year, more than 2,500 tickets were sold in person, and many more were sold online and on the day of.
It took place in Memorial Hall West in the York Fairgrounds.
Corporal Jesse Harden talked about the different aspects of the event.
“The money goes for gear, medical expenses, training aids, even straight to buying the dogs. It gets rather expensive really,” Harden said.
The event takes almost all year to plan. The office might have a month or two break between each, but it takes the majority of the year.
Harden is also the handler of Sergeant Wero, who happens to be the youngest K-9 on the unit and the face on the tickets.
“It was before I came to the unit. I believe it was our Lieutenant’s idea to create an event to help fundraise for the K-9s and expand the unit. It also just helps with community relations,” Harden said.
The event was created by Sergeant Corey Strine and Lieutenant David Godfrey.
“[Godfrey] and I were the two guys on the K-9 unit at the time. We held it at Dover Fire Hall, and had about 100 people,” Strine stated.
The very same Lt. Godfrey who helped found the event was the same man who was injured in the deadly shooting in North Codorus Township on Sept. 17.
This was one of his very first times appearing in public after the tragic incident last month. A week earlier, he was in the hospital continuing to heal, but he came for about an hour to show his support.
The event was obviously a huge success, especially this year. When walking in, the line for the famous spaghetti wrapped from the very back of the building to the front entrance. The building it took place in is 29,264 square feet; just to put how long the line really was into perspective.
They also had many silent auctions from different donors.
“It’s just continued to grow every year,” Strine said.
Another thing that drew people into the event was, one of the K-9s, Lieutenant Tommi, was retired at the event. He was trained in explosive detection, tracking, building searches, area searches, article searches, and other detection abilities.
The Sheriff’s Office hopes to shed more light on this event for the future, as it’s very important for them.
