February/March/April 2007


Letters:


‘Tommy Moose’
a Great Tool for
This Police Detective

> I would like to thank the Zion-Benton IL Lodge 667 for presenting me with a case of “Tommy Moose” stuffed animals.

I would like to tell you what that has done for me on my job. I am a detective with the Zion Police Department in which it is my responsibility to investigate child abuse crimes.

During the month of September, 2006, I was investigating a crime that involved a four-year-old girl who was the victim of a sexual assault. This frightened little girl did not want to talk to the police. At that time I remembered I had a “Tommy Moose” in my squad car. I retrieved him and went back inside. When that little girl saw what was in my hand she suddenly became much more receptive.

I talked to her through “Tommy Moose” and asked her questions about her case. She opened up to “Tommy Moose” at a time when she would not tell anyone what was going on, including her own mother. The results of the case have yet to be determined.

I would like to personally thank all members of the Zion-Benton Moose Lodge 667, especially the Board of Directors, for “Tommy Moose.”

“Tommy Moose” will be an effective tool for my law enforcement career. I will continue to use him as much as possible for children who are victims of all types of child abuse.

Richard Brown
 Detective, Zion (IL) Police Department

Send correspondence to LETTERS, Moose Magazine, Mooseheart, IL 60539-1174, or to kwehrmeister @mooseintl. org. Letters must be signed, and may be edited for brevity and clarity.


Past Supreme Governor Thomas Hatcher (right) gives a Tommy Moose doll to former Kane County (IL) Sheriff Ken Ramsey.


‘This frightened little girl did not want to talk to the police . . . I talked to her through Tommy Moose . . . she opened up at a time when she wouldn’t tell anyone--including
her own mother.’



> Click here for a
Tommy Moose order form.


> I recently saw on television some clips of some Mooseheart students and their activities at school. I had been aware for a long time of Mooseheart, but this gave me a glimpse of its activities. What I saw left a most positive impression.

As former teachers, my wife and I spent a lot of time with young people.

I am approaching my 80th birthday, and I believe that young people need love. They need friends. They need security and they need challenges. They need fun and they need guidance and sometimes they need pretty stiff discipline.

They need adults who act like adults and who know how to spread kindness. They need the satisfaction of accomplishment.

They need food, shelter and clothing. They need to like themselves and to feel joy within themselves. Sometimes they need tears, but more often, they need wide grins lighting their faces.

I saw all of these characteristics in those brief TV clips. Congratulations to you and to the staff at Mooseheart.

May God’s grace be as a shower upon you, the entire staff at Mooseheart and to the children whose childhood is entrusted to you and your staff.

James Koeller
Palos Park, IL

(Editor’s Note: Chicago’s WGN-TV Channel 9 sent a crew to Mooseheart Child City & School in mid-November; reporter Ana Belaval conducted numerous interviews, which were broadcast throughout the Midwest on the day before Thanksgiving, Nov. 22. Glimpses of these interviews, along with a clip featuring Mooseheart on a Chicago PBS travel documentary, appear on both www.mooseintl.org and www.mooseheart.org.)












Mooseheart kids’ and staff’s television appearances give positive impression