By Rusty Bradshaw
Twitter: @SunCitiesEditor

The Golf Program in Schools has been introducing students to the game of golf for several years. Now program organizers want to introduce them to something else.

An offshoot of the program, called “Kids and Cops on Course,” was discussed Aug. 4 by Tom Loegering, GPS founder; Larry Smith, GPS board member; and Janet Craven, GPS administration director and Jennifer Rauzen and other members of the Peoria Police Department. The program is designed to have students and police officers meet on the Sun City Country Club golf course, 9433 N. 107th Ave., where the students will learn officers are their friends and people they can turn to and ask for help.

“This program was discussed prior to the pandemic and the riots taking place that advocate defunding police departments and reducing citizens right to safety,” Mr. Loegering stated in an email. “It is time to develop a program that teaches our children to respect police officers as their friends and the people dedicated to their safety.”

The Kids and Cops on Course will be integrated into GPS’s is regularly scheduled in-school introduction to fifth- to ninth-grade students to help them learn the life lessons from golf that helps students get on their right PATH, which stands for persistence, achievement, trustworthiness and health, according to Mr. Loegering. The programs are taught and offered free to all Peoria Unified School District schools for students in grades 5-9. Field trip are conducted at the Sun City Country Club.

To implement the Kids and Cops on Course program, GPS organizers will invite police officers to attend local GPS events, such as the free Family Fun Day where parents and students come to the Sun City Country Club and are introduced to golf and its family benefits. These include talking with students in a social media free zone and meeting officers and their families learning to know, like and trust our first responders.

Both GPS and the new program will begin when schools are back in session, according to Mr. Loegering.

“We are ready now,” he stated.

All approved health protocols will be followed, as they are now with ongoing programs, Mr. Loegering explained.

“GPS does have a for profit golf academy and we are working with all students that have no in school classes,” he stated. “We have a program called Safe-6. Only six students to one teacher, six feet apart, six weekly classes for $90.”

Sun City Country Club officials are also developing policy and procedures to work with at least six high school golf teams at no charge to students or schools, according to Mr. Loegering. All students will be offered free golf with a paid adult, he added.