Nye County first responders will now have a companion riding with them to assist in comforting and consoling children in times of distress, courtesy of Pahrump Moose Lodge 808.
Last week Moose Lodge members introduced and presented both law enforcement and fire department crews with several cases of their official plush and cuddly mascot, Tommy Moose.
“It’s for them to give to children who have suffered distress and trauma in certain incidents when they respond to a scene where children are involved,” said Lodge Member Laurie Olsen. “They will have the stuffed animals in their vehicles to hand out to the children. The Moose Lodge has done this on several different occasions, but this is my first time being a part of it.”
Since 2002, more than 100,000 of the stuffed animals have been donated to shelters and hospitals across the country, so says Pahrump Moose Lodge Governor Al Cook.
“We get them from Moose International in Chicago. There’s 12 to a case, and we are giving out several cases,” Cook said. “They give the kids something else to think about, so they are not thinking about the incident itself. Tommy Moose is also our official mascot.”
Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly concurred with Cook’s assertion.
“We have given these out in the past, and the kids love them,” Wehrly said. “It really soothes and calms them down after being involved in a traumatic situation. They are so very cute and cuddly, so it just brightens a child’s day when they have something to hold onto, especially when there’s a tragedy and they are hurt. It gives them a lot of comfort. There are too many situations where young children are involved. Anywhere from car wrecks, to domestic situations, or simply getting lost. We have children who get lost in this valley, and even though they may be lost for about 10 minutes, it can be traumatic, so if they have something to hold onto and comfort them, they calm down really fast and Tommy Moose is very effective in doing that.”
Pahrump Valley Fire and Rescue Services Chief Scott Lewis noted that the stuffed animals are actually a very important component of the department’s resources.
“It’s very important that we be equipped with not only the tools to execute fire suppression, or perform an extrication to rescue people, but we can hand out these small tokens of comfort that can mean so much to the kids,” Lewis said. “There is an emotional aspect to all of this, in a sense of comfort that needs to be portrayed by the fire department when on these serious incidents. That is just another aspect that we are responsible to address. We are fortunate enough to have had the assistance from the Pahrump Moose Lodge and we can’t thank them enough.”
Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes