Cops 4 Kids With Autism Toy Drive

Dec. 24--WAKEMAN -- A total of 463 children across seven counties affected with autism will get to celebrate Christmas thanks to one woman and her commitment to serve her community.

Julianna Trunko, a Wakeman police officer, saw a need 14 years ago to identify the children that were autistic in the communities that law enforcement serves. If they are able to identify which families have autistitic children in the home they can be better prepared to understand their triggers.

Trunko figured one of the ways to get to know the families dealing with autism in the household was to organize the non-profit Cops 4 Kids With Autism Toy Drive. For a child with autism, a police officer can be an unfamiliar and scary person, so if you can cast them in a positive light in the child's eyes it can build trust.

"As a police officer, it's huge for us," she said. "Kids get to see a police officer in uniform and get familiar with that and learn that they are safe people to go to ... for many of these kids they only come in contact with law enforcement when negative events are going on in their lives. A lot of these kids will stay away from police or they'll just hide under their bed if there's an emergency and a police officer is calling their name. We want them to familiarize themselves with the police so that doesn't happen. With this program they are having positive encounters with law enforcement and see that when cops are around good things come to them."

Sunday, the non-profit serving Huron, Erie, Lorain, Medina, Wayne, Cuyahoga, and Summit counties opened the doors at the Wakeman Police Department to autistic families to shop for their gifts. There is no income guideline for families to participate in the program. The only requirement is that the family have a member on the autism spectrum and have a doctor, church or some other group verify the diagnosis.

"We provide gifts for the entire family, because we believe autism effects the entire family one way or another," Trunko said. "This is not a welfare program; we don't ask how much money you make. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how much you make. It's about the officers getting to know your child."

Officers use the information they get from families to help them handle future incidents at the home and pass on what they know to fthe local fire departments. Trunko said having such information is valuable for first-responders because in the case of firefighters, they will learn where an autistic child's hiding places are and if they should approach the house with lights and sirens.

This year the program picked up enough donations to allow kids and parents to pick out four gifts each -- In past years pre-made baskets were handed out rather than lining up items and allowing them to pick their own.

"This is Christmas, every child deserves to have a Christmas with gifts of their own," Trunko said. "At some point we will go back to the baskets, but I think it's nice to allow them to pick out something that is appropriate for them. Each autistic child have their own personalities set of triggers that nobody could possibly know unless they were in their family.

"It's about every family and the bond we are able to make with them," she added. "We have been lucky enough to keep this going for long enough that I have actually seen kids that were two and threeyears old when we started this to becoming an adult and graduating from high school."

As families poured into the Wakeman Fire Department an unspoken bond was present as smiles and tears were plentiful. Though they only see one another a time or two every year, they are all family. They all share the same struggles for the other 364 days out of the year.

"Julianna is amazing," Elayna Baker, of Sandusky said. "It's a wonderful thing she is doing for all of our families. For us it's just a little harder around the holidays -- a lot of triggers can be set off with all of the comings and goings associated with Christmas. We spend a lot of money the rest of the year trying to treat our children and for a lot of us, this is our Christmas and without her, we wouldn't have presents to open at all.

"It's also nice to get to pick out your child's gifts," Baker continued. "We know what is good for our kids and what might trigger them. It is also good that the siblings can get something too, because the whole family is affected with autism."

Trunko, who has a 15-year old son with autism, spent countless hours preparing for the Cops 4 Kids with Autism this year. She owns the food trucks, Southern Thangs and Ye Olde School, Treats and Eats and the recently opened Twisted Grill and Grind, which she uses to help fund her philanthropic works.

She had the easiest answer for why she spends so much of her time giving back when she is already serving the public with a career in law enforcement.

"I don't have a choice," Trunko said. "I have three kids watching me everyday and I will do no less than to succeed -- and if that is all I leave them with, I will take it."

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