{"id":766,"date":"2024-09-13T17:18:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T17:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/?p=766"},"modified":"2024-09-13T20:19:14","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T20:19:14","slug":"thank-you-for-your-service-shepherd-students-deliver-a-powerful-message-of-appreciation-for-indianapolis-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/2024\/09\/13\/thank-you-for-your-service-shepherd-students-deliver-a-powerful-message-of-appreciation-for-indianapolis-police\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Thank you for your service\u2019: Shepherd students deliver a powerful message of appreciation for Indianapolis police"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Police officers patrolling the eastside of Indianapolis far too often encounter the worst of humanity. They also too seldom hear appreciation for the lifesaving work they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Students at Shepherd Academy recently were able to help change a small but powerful piece of that reality for dozens of officers who serve in the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department\u2019s East District.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The officers met Sept. 6 at Shepherd for their daily roll call \u2013 when information is shared, assignments are reviewed and the latest developments discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On that day, a special moment was added to the officers\u2019 routine. As they walked Shepherd Community Center\u2019s halls, officers were surrounded by cheering students and staff, who held handmade signs thanking them for their service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Police Appreciation\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xJX6h1TmHBk?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>How did the interaction between students and officers come about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAfter having coffee with the commander of East District, Michael Leeper, he introduced me to one of his officers,\u201d Shepherd Executive Director Jay Height said. \u201cThat officer had provided first aid to a fellow officer who had been ambushed. In talking&nbsp;with him, he said that officers just wanted to know the community&nbsp;supports them.&nbsp;So, our students responded&nbsp;by making&nbsp;cards and signs for them. This opportunity to bring our youth in positive connection to IMPD was a powerful reminder to both.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Height said many of the officers were moved by the students\u2019 show of appreciation and respect. It was a simple but powerful gesture in a world where kindness can be hard to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also was an important practical lesson for the students \u2013 that \u201cthank you\u201d has power beyond the mere words and that the adults who serve and protect them, including those who carry a badge, need to be reminded of how much they matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police officers patrolling the eastside of Indianapolis far too often encounter the worst of humanity. They also too seldom hear appreciation for the lifesaving work they do. Students at Shepherd Academy recently were able to help change a small but powerful piece of that reality for dozens of officers who serve in the Indianapolis Metropolitan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}