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Show rie response to this years drive has been unbelievable as clothing, toys, books, quilts, baby formula and bottles, diapers and food has poured into City hall. Photo courtesy of Gen Taylor Lindon PD Shows True Spirit of Thanksgiving by Geri Taylor The wives of Lindon City's Police officers began a service group when the department de-partment was first organized in 2008 and have sponsored several drives each year to help the underprivileged from our local communities. Though few news, articles have been written about the projects, the ladies have not sought the notoriety or attention. atten-tion. However, one of the articles was the catalyst for their latest and most touching undertaking. "Wives" continued on Page 4 ''Wives" continued from Page 1 Army Captain Billy Prid-dis Prid-dis of Orem is currently serving serv-ing in Afghanistan, guarding a children's hospital with his unit. Since keeping in touch with home is important to a soldier, Captain Priddis reads everything he can from the local lo-cal websites, especially watching watch-ing for news of Utah Valley. The article about the Lindon Police Department wives caught his attention since his brother-in-law, Eric Whitehead, White-head, works on the force. Priddis contacted Eric's wife, Tracey, and asked if her group would be willing to gather much needed supplies to send to the hospital. The wives readily agreed and soon the message was going to all Lindon residents through the city utility bill. The response was unbelievable as clothing, toys, books, quilts, baby formula for-mula and bottles, diapers and food began pouring into city hall. What started out as one hospital soon grew to two and an orphanage as well. Captain Priddis explained the dire circumstances the Afghani's were in and that new or gently used articles would be greatly appreciated. appreci-ated. Several boxes have already al-ready been sent, but the bulk will be packed in a large metal shipping container that the military has agreed to take to Afghanistan at no cost, thanks to the help of Captain Priddis. One tender story has already al-ready come from the boxes received for the hospital. An 18-month-old boy was admitted to the hospital with a heart defect, complicated compli-cated by pneumonia and was soon dressed in a white baby blessing outfit included in one of the boxes. The toddler tod-dler had arrived dressed in a dirty cloth tied around his body, the only clothing owned by the poverty-stricken parents. Soon after their child was dressed and an oxygen mask put on, the tiny boy put his thumb under the mask and sucked on it. Moments later he was gone, but the grieving parents voiced their gratitude that he had on clean clothes that he could be buried in. The mayor's office is overflowing with supplies that will soon be boxed and put in a container headed for a people who have so little, and lives will be touched on both sides of the world because someone gave. Tracey expresses for all the women a deep feeling of gratitude for the outpouring of support from the community and while the group may receive re-ceive the credit, she is adamant in declaring, "We couldn't do it without their help." Without someone to organize orga-nize these good deeds, nothing noth-ing would get done, so the community thanks the Lindon PD wives for going above and beyond in their service to others. |