By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
CARIBOU, Maine — Officers with the Caribou Police Department knowingly put themselves in a very sticky situation on Friday afternoon, allowing the public to cram a pie in their faces for $5 to help TD Bank employees fundraise for the Special Olympics.
Though thunderstorms rolled in and cut the afternoon a bit short, the officers did end up wearing $165 worth of pie in the 90 minutes that the group spent in front of the Caribou TD Bank Branch off of Hatch Drive.
Being exceptionally good sports about taking whipped cream pies to the face, officers with the Caribou Police Department, from left, Keith Ouellette, Chad Cochran and Ed Dubie helped raise $165 for the Special Olympics through the TD Bank Caribou Branch’s Pie a Cop fundraiser. Shown at below, TD Bank branch manager Malissa Dubie couldn’t help but participate in the event.
Rebecca Nickerson of Fort Fairfield was one of many who paid $5 to participate in the Pie a Cop fundraiser organized by officials with the Caribou Branch of TD Bank; she’s shown here sharing the dessert with Officer Chad Cochran.
It cost $5 per pie tin filled with whipped cream — which Officers Ed Dubie, Keith Ouellette and Chad Cochran graciously volunteered to wear.
“TD Bank had the idea to Pie a Cop, and we thought it would be a good idea that would draw a lot of people — and it’s a good cause,” Dubie said about half hour into the fundraiser, wearing a uniform splotched with whipped cream. “It’s not a concept you hear every day that people want to do, and obviously we’ve drawn quite a few people here.”
Rebecca Nickerson of Fort Fairfield was one of such people attracted to the fundraiser — and she said the appeal was as much the opportunity to make a donation to the Special Olympics as it was the chance to pie an officer in the face — and for Nickerson, that policeman was Officer Cochran.
The Caribou Police Department participates in other Special Olympics fundraisers over the year, like the annual Torch Run held earlier this month.
“We’re not just crime fighters — we help the public,” Dubie said. “This is a very good fundraiser, so we definitely want to do our part.”
Thanks to the volunteerism of the three officers, the $165 fundraised by TD Bank officials on June 14 bolstered the Caribou branch to having raised roughly $1,200 for the Special Olympics since mid-May, and the fund-raising campaign is slated for conclusion on June 20.
