With several boxes of warm, toasty pizza, seven Santa Clarita children crossed a Valencia intersection on Friday to make a special delivery “to give back to those who protect us,” one said.
Oren Tikosky, a 12-year-old boy who recently graduated from Meadows Elementary School, was joined by his two younger siblings and four cousins to deliver pizza and water to Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies.
“We just wanted to bring some pizza to our police station because we noticed that police aren’t getting as much support as they should be right now when they protect us and they help us,” said Tikosky. “I thought maybe we should show our gratitude.”
Along with pizzas and water, the group also held a colorful sign that read, “Kids for Cops,” which promotes “that not all cops are bad and that they do protect and serve us and put their lives on the line occasionally,” said the 12-year-old.
The initiative comes after the rise of recent, nationwide tension surrounding police brutality after the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
Kids for Cops is a group Tikosky recently started that aims to use “money donated by kind donors and friends and uses them to give the police officers around us a couple of pizzas and our thanks,” reads their website.
Funds are collected via the Kids for Cops GoFundMe account, where $781 had been collected by Friday.
Kids for Cops is still a small group, but the goal is to have it grow outside the SCV, said Tikosky.
“We are currently planning to go to the California Highway Patrol and then move to L.A. and we’re also planning on asking kids in other cities to join the cause,” he said.
Law enforcement officials at the station welcomed the children and thanked them for their gesture.
“It’s just amazing to know that we live in a community that’s extremely supportive of our department, considering everything that’s just been happening around lately. So, we’ve been blessed,” said Maricela Ramirez, a law enforcement technician at the station who received the pizza.
