By Eliza Ridgeway
 Mountain View Police Chief Scott Vermeer, right, introduces Officer Ron Cooper. |
When local leaders gathered for the annual Challenge Team breakfast May 8, they honored Mountain View Police Officer Ron Cooper as the year’s “Champion for Youth” for his varied – and expanding – programs to engage children in the community in positive projects with the city’s police department.
Mountain View Police Chief Scott Vermeer described Cooper’s proposal that the department initiate Cops Who Care, a Christmas gift drive, and the subsequent success of the program. The first year, Cooper and his family, with help from colleagues, gathered 500 gifts. Since then, the program has ballooned into an all-day holiday party, last year hosting 1,700 children and disbursing 2,200 gifts.
Vermeer spoke to the “unintended consequences” of such programming.
“Kids look at the police department building as they go by and think of it as a happy place,” he said.
Cooper is president of the Police Activities League, founded in 2006, a program that brings together police officers and at-risk youth in positive, nonconfrontational settings. He herded middle-schoolers on two camping trips, took students to a model race-car building program and escorted groups to local sports games.
Cooper launched Team MVPAL Boxing on May 10, a year-round boxing program for local teens that meets three times a week. He oversees the activity as a community volunteer.
“It reflects on (the department) – that it’s us doing it,” Vermeer said of sharing the program’s glory. “But it’s not us. It’s (Officer Cooper).”
Cooper, who joined the department in 1997 and has been a school resource officer since 2005, made limited comments after others had sung his praises but noted that, “Student achievement is a group effort.”
The annual breakfast affords Challenge Team members a chance to celebrate and network, and to honor a hero for his or her work with youth. This year, the event began with words from Ian Hill, a motivational speaker with a background in youth programs.
“You’re in the room today to build a citizen of tomorrow,” he said, describing the incremental steps of building playgrounds and afterschool programs as vehicles to an end, rather than as accomplishments in and of themselves.
Pointing to a gap between principle and practice in the philanthropic community, Hill urged the audience to focus on an interdisciplinary spirit, rather than be limited by the borders of profession or agency.
Challenge Team formed in 1987 with representatives from Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills in response to a challenge from the California State Attorney General’s Office to support youth programming. The non-profit partnership of local agencies and volunteers works to prevent high-risk activities such as substance abuse and gang affiliation.
For more information, visit www.challengeteam.org.
Contact Eliza Ridgeway at elizar@latc.com.
