This weekend while we were attending the First Responders Appreciation Day, we came across the fine young Boulder City Explorer’s and their leaders at the Boulder City Police Department: Officer Scott Pastore and Detective C. Tomao.
Some of you know Officer Pastore because we’ve followed him and his horse Odie as the new Mounted Police Unit that just started this year. But Officer Pastore has also been the lead officer in charge of the Explorer unit since 2008.
The local unit has actually been in existence since 1984, and since 2008 they have had about 100 youths participate in this group.
Aged from 14-21, the Explorer’s do a heck of a lot in our community, we learned!
The Explorer’s are involved in all sorts of local policing activities. They go on ‘ride alongs’ when officers are on patrol, they help with paperwork, are first aid trained and CPR Certified.
They’re also on hand either on foot or by bicycle for nearly every single event we have in our community!
The goal of the organization is to expose these youth participants to community service and a lot of public contact. Through that they gain invaluable real-life communication skills and experiences. Some of them go on to a career in law enforcement or the military, but the officers in charge emphasize that isn’t the core mission of the organization. It’s about ‘adulting’ these youths in ways to help them become successful, no matter what they do in their lives.
This is no “Law and Order” TV episode. These youths have to learn to handle themselves in some up-close-and-personal police experiences – and it’s this fact, Officer Pastore says, is maybe both their favorite thing, as well as the most surprising thing about their work.
So, the next time you’re at one of our fun Boulder City community events, if you see one of these fine younger folks in uniform, be sure to give them a big “Thank You” for all they do for us behind the scenes!
