Walnut Rotary cookout will offset police training expenses

WALNUT - Mark Harkness, president of the Rotary Club of Walnut, announced a portion of the proceeds from the club's Saturday, May 21, cookout will be donated to the village of Walnut to offset the costs of training Walnut police in the skills necessary to interact with those in a mental health crisis.

Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training is sponsored by the Sauk Area Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), which serves Carroll, Lee, Ogle and Whiteside counties and the surrounding areas. NAMI is dedicated to building better lives for those affected by mental illness. CIT training educates officers about mental illness and teaches communication strategies with those in crisis. The lack of readily available treatment options for those with mental illness has increased the number of encounters police have with mentally ill persons. Key to properly handling and diffusing potential dangerous situations is adequate training ... CIT training.

"The Rotary Club of Walnut is proud of its motto: ?Service Above Self.' Few people better exemplify that philosophy than local police. Our village police deal with all sorts of situations. Some of those situations involve a person ? whether victim or perpetrator ? which require a special skill set," said Harkness. "The Walnut Rotary is committed to serving the citizens of our community. The May 21 cookout is a great way to thank our local police and to support them by helping to provide resources to get the tools they need to do their job."

Walnut Rotarians will be serving pork chop sandwiches, brats and hot dogs at the Veterans' Memorial from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

"Our local police are the first line of defense in times of trouble. There are families in our community who know all too well the importance of equipping our police with the tools they need to handle every situation, including those involving the mentally ill," urged Harkness. "We hope Walnut comes out to help those families and support the Walnut Police Department."

The Rotary Club of Walnut meets six times a month at the Walnut Café. For further information on how to become a member of Rotary, contact President Mark Harkness at 815-379-3062 or at Mark.harkness@gmail.com.