By Brandon Bennett STURGIS— If you’re a ne’er do well, stay away from the Sturgis City Park! The Woodland Shelter is overrun with law enforcement types there for the annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Barbecue. Sheriff Pat West hosted the event and the dignitaries came, like Senator Mike Rounds, Governor Larry Rhoden and Attorney General Marty Jackley. We bum-rushed two of them which we’ll post later. JR’s Barbecue provided the brisket(drool,drool) and there were plenty of live and silent auction items. The impetus isn’t just to have some camaraderie among cops and such, but to raise a little money for Meade County Cares. Here’s what Meade County Sheriff Pat West had to say: “This was started by Gene Abdullah who held several positions in law enforcement and when he passed in 2017 it kind of faded. After I became sheriff my wife and I started talking about it,” he said. From those discussions the event was revived to show appreciation for law enforcement but Chief Deputy James Johns suggested starting a non profit called Meade County Cares. “We’d been hearing there were people that needed help and it was tough to pass the hat every week. So we help underprivileged families with things like Shop With The Sheriff,” said West. Kids are taken to WalMart and are bought several presents to put under the tree. Another case was a local police officer and his wife had a baby with some serious health issues and they were given support.
