Chief For A Day honors chronically ill kids with badges and a swearing-in

WENATCHEE — The Chief For a Day program is an annual tradition at Wenatchee’s Apple Blossom Festival, and here locally, it involves multiple agencies naming kids from area schools to take over as the boss at those agencies for one day. The purpose, of course, is to give kids with chronic or life-threatening illnesses a way to be distracted from them for at least one day and be the most important person in the room.

That’s what everyone attending got to see yesterday on the GESA Credit Union Entertainment Stage, as this year’s kids brought up in front of their classmates in the audience, who cheered like crazy when the Little Chief from their school was honored.

Seven agencies participated by nominating a kid to take over as chief. The Wenatchee and East Wenatchee Police Departments, the Chelan and Douglas County Sheriff’s Offices, the Wenatchee Valley Fire Department, the Washington State Patrol and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife all picked one lucky kid, who each wore a uniform created by Sew Rite Alterations here in Wenatchee, and was awarded a badge.

This year’s Little Chiefs were:

• Rebecca Fox from Lewis & Clark Elementary for the Wenatchee Police Department
• Jordan Arnold from Lee Elementary for the East Wenatchee Police Department
• Nathaniel Veteto from River Academy for the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office
• Rodrigo Garibay from Cascade Elementary for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office
• Lark “Tilly” Love from Newberry Elementary for the Wenatchee Valley Fire Department
• Charlee Rose Lyons from Mission View Elementary for the Washington State Patrol
• Jack Ballamis from Kenroy Elementary for the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife

There was a performance of the national anthem by Detective Jeffrey Eifert of the Washington State Patrol, an honor guard salute, and a special swearing-in by Chelan County Superior Court Judge Kristin Ferrera.

The affair, which was overseen by the joyous-as-usual Mayor Mike Poirier and his East Wenatchee counterpart, Mayor Jerrilea Crawford, was capped with a special flyover of the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office helicopter, which buzzed Memorial Park twice for the cheering crowd.

The ceremony was outstanding, and the faces of both the kids who were honored and their parents will be memories that last forever.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media