APG police officer’s drive to give back

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. – The APG Directorate of Operations held its annual Book Bag Drive at the APG North Police Station, August 30.

For over a month, book bags and school supplies for children and parents needing some assistance for the upcoming school year had been donated by the APG community at different drop-off locations around the installation.

APG DoO Cpl. Latrina Brown, a 13-year veteran at APG, started the drive back in 2018, and has led the drive every year since,

with the exception of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I wanted to find a way to give back to the community,” Brown said reflecting on what inspired her to initiate the drive three years ago. “But this year, the COVID-19 pandemic inspired me the most because there were so many people that were out of work and I saw an opportunity to reach out and help them as best as we could being on the police side.”

The event was open for anyone affiliated with APG to participate as either a donor or recipient.

“The APG Book Bag Drive is essentially collecting and giving out free book bags filled with school supplies to the APG community, civilians, employees, military who have kids needing one for the upcoming school year,” she explained. “For the community, by the community!”

Back in July, Brown and her team set up different donation boxes at different locations around APG, such as the commissary, Exchange and police station. Over the next month the APG community pitched in and donated children’s school supplies and book bags to the boxes, before they were collected and sorted into categories based on the potential child’s grade level by Brown and her team. Cpl. Brown’s team then filled each donated backpack with the grade-appropriate school supplies, ready to be distributed to parents of the APG community on the day of the Book Bag Drive event.

“This year we were overwhelmed with donations,” an excited Brown exclaimed. “This year was the first year that we reached out to the whole APG installation for help with the drive.”

HISTORY OF SERVICE

In 2018, the drive started out as a smaller-scale charity opportunity for police officers to give back to the APG community.

“Back then I organized it really by myself,” Brown acknowledged. “I really didn’t want to be a bother to my coworkers. Then, I had just transitioned to the desk from patrol where I would speak and interact with the children of the [APG] community, and thought ‘they always do stuff for us,’ like bringing us hot cocoa at the gate during the wintertime and ice water during the summer. They look after us so I thought that it was time to return the favor as best I could. I challenged some of my coworkers to join my cause and was pleased to see them meet the challenge.”

Brown described the early process and successes of launching a charitable event like the drive within her own department on APG.

“I challenged each one of my shifts to fill a book bag with school supplies and we gave out 27 book bags in the lobby of the police station,” she said. “The next year we incorporated APG Fire and Dispatch and the former Directorate of Emergency Services with a total of 67 book bags which were given out during National Night Out. By then [2019] they knew what was coming and pitched in without hesitation!”

AN EMERGING APG TRADITION

After finding out that more of APG wanted to get involved with the drive this year, Brown spoke with and received the support of the U.S. Army Garrison APG Director of Public Affairs, Quentin Johnson.

“I then made the decision to reach out to the whole APG installation for assistance in the drive,” she stated. “And they (APG participating community) really made this year’s drive awesome! We even had some Gold Star Family donors, which I thought was really special.”

Brown said that a minor challenge to the success of this year’s event was that she had to take on extra organizational and accountability responsibilities such as completing a health risk assessment to ensure the drive would be completed within all the installation’s COVID-19 health guidelines.

Despite all the health and safety challenges and dynamic, yet necessary, pandemic guidelines and regulations on post, this year’s drive was by far the largest. Brown’s contribution goal of 150 stuffed book bags for this year’s drive was exceeded by 30%, with almost 195 stuffed book bags donated.

“This is triple what we accomplished in 2019, and I attribute that to reaching out to the entire APG installation as a whole,” said Brown. “I’m glad that I reached out.”

PERSONAL MOTIVATION

Brown said that she loves what she does here as a police officer on a diverse and unique installation like APG, and has especially enjoyed interacting with the community and people during her 13 years working in Aberdeen.

“I wanted the community here at APG: civilian employees, contractors, military personnel to see the police as more than ‘just police officers that give out tickets,’ I wanted them to see a softer side to us,” Brown disclosed.

Brown said that even before her time at APG she understood the importance of giving back to and strengthening the community.

“I have always been driven to help,” she said. “Out of 30 or so years of working in my life I always helped with stuff like fundraisers, drives, and things to help my team and community. To let them know that I appreciate them.”

COMMUNITY TEAM EFFORT

Her sincere appreciation for her community, co-workers and teammates matches her dedication and service to the APG community.

“I had so much help from my team here at the Department of Operations and the whole community here,” Brown stated. “Everybody really pitched in this year! My police chief here, Joel Holdford, has really supported me and my initiative. My team and I came in and worked on our off days for the drive; collecting and setting-up the backpacks for the drive. I just want to thank my department and my book bag team for all their support! They all made my job easier this year!”

APG DoO Sgt. Jackie Hendrix, a 2-year veteran with APG police, was one of the volunteers of Brown’s Book Bag Drive team who participated in the drive.

“I was whatever Cpl. Brown needed,” said Hendrix. “Any type of assistance, coordination, assembling book bags. A lot of organization that went into the backside of the event.”

Despite some lousy weather on the day of the event, Brown and her team showed up on their day off to hand out as many bookbags as they could.

“She is an inspiration!” Hendrix said. “Nobody else could get me here like this on my day off! She’s a go-getter and I wanted to be a part of this awesome event!”

Brown was just as grateful for the record number of donations the drive received from generous members of the APG community.

“I really want to thank the people that donated,” Brown said. “Because this would not have been this big without them, and I want them to realize that they made this year’s Book Bag Drive awesome!”

Anthony Hale, site manager of APG Edgewater Area DPW, expressed his gratitude for Brown and the opportunity for the larger APG community to contribute to this year’s drive.

“I’m Just proud of the EA DPW team for how much we collected and helping out,” Hale said. “Education is important to us, and we want to assist any way we can!”

FUTURE OF DRIVE

When asked about her plans for the future of the APG Book Bag Drive, Brown said that she plans on continuing finding creative ways to give back to the community.

“As long as I have that opportunity to give back to the community, we’ll do something,” stated Brown. “Whether it’s a book bag drive, or the Angel Tree Program donation during Christmas, we’ll continue to give back to this community as long as we can!”

Brown said that it was important for this community to recognize events like the Book Bag Drive as examples of the community looking after each other and doing the right thing.

“I would just like for the community to realize that we’re human, but we’re police officers,” Brown declared. “We were hired to do a job. And we’re not just out there to get you, give you a ticket, give you a hard time. We’re out there to do our job, and here to help as best we can. This drive is one of those ways that we’re helping.”