Bartlett officer named DuPage Juvenile Officer of Year
On Wednesday, Bartlett police officer Gina Walsh received the DuPage Juvenile Officers Association's 2017 Juvenile Officer of the Year Award at its fall awards banquet in Willowbrook.
Walsh is the school resource officer for Eastview Middle School in the village but does much more there than her title alone might suggest.
In the past year she's started a Service-Over-Self program that teaches students the value of volunteering and working together to help others.
Students packaged meals at Feed My Starving Children for kids in Haiti and Kenya, made Valentine's Day cards and played bingo with residents of senior citizen facilities, sent letters to troops overseas, made blankets for the Linus Project and collected 20 pounds of aluminum can tabs to raise money for Ronald McDonald House.
Walsh is also the school's Project Alert teacher, educating students on how to make good decisions in regard to bullying, alcohol and drugs.
When the school day is over, Walsh volunteers at the cooking club program she created to help build a positive relationship between police and the students.
In addition to cooking itself, the program teaches responsibility, how to follow directions and the importance of helping out around the house.