Police K-9 program gets $60K in MAAC grants

NORTHWEST INDIANA

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Police dogs from nine agencies across Northwest Indiana, along with their handlers and benefactors, gather for a group portrait after receiving a total of $60,000 in donations for the new S50 K-9 Fund on Thursday. Doug Ross/photos for Post-Tribune

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Philanthropist Jacki Stutzman, a longtime benefactor of police dogs, speaks during a grant presentation ceremony Thursday.

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Bill Hanna, executive director of the Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation, speaks with MAAC Foundation founder Stewart McMillan during the grant presentation ceremony Thursday.

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By Doug Ross For Post-Tribune

Police dogs in Northwest Indiana got a $60,000 boost in the first round of funding through a new MAAC Foundation K-9 grant program.

The S50 K-9 Fund is named in memory of the late Valparaiso police Sgt. Steve Kobitz, whose badge number was 50. He died in the line of duty on May 25, 2020.

Nine police departments across Lake, Porter, LaPorte and Jasper counties received donations to support police dogs. Each grant varied, with a maximum of $5,000; they were announced Thursday at the MAAC campus in Valparaiso.

Receiving grants were the Cedar Lake, Crown Point, Hammond, Lake Station, LaPorte and St. John police departments; the Jasper and Porter County sheriff’s departments; and the Valpo K-9 Association.

MAAC Foundation President and CEO Celina Weatherwax said a $750,000 donation from philanthropist Jacki Stutzman has helped the foundation raise money toward an indoor K-9 training facility on the east end of the MAAC campus. That fund drive is still underway.

Stutzman’s support of police dogs began when she met two Valparaiso police officers raising money for a new dog.

Police departments often rely on donations to fund their K-9 program.

“I decided I was going to make a donation, so I just casually said how much was the cost, and at that time I think they told me $15,000 or $13,000,” Stutzman said.

“I said, ‘Well, I don’t have my checkbook.’ I wasn’t far from where they were, so I drove home. I got my checkbook. I came back, and I wrote them a check for the entire amount.”

The officers were giving T-shirts to donors, so Stutzman walked away with her arms loaded with them. “I honestly don’t think they expected to ever see me again once I walked off,” she said.

Originally, the MAAC fund was set up to fund the purchase of new K-9s and related equipment for first responders but as the program developed, it became obvious that there were other needs, like training, care and feeding, that the grant could cover.

“How many of you can sniff out a bomb or sniff out drugs?” she asked. Dogs also are trained to chase suspects and jump over fences, she noted, which helps their handlers.

Stewart McMillan, whose vision led to the creation of the MAAC campus, told of visiting the facility one night and finding two dog handlers from Seymour who drove for hours to train their dogs at the MAAC campus overnight. That was “one of the neatest experiences I’ve ever had,” he said.

“You guys train hard, and the fact that you have to have a partner with you to train makes it even more difficult for you,” he told the grant recipients.

The Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation is a major donor to the $1 million fund. “It’s not a check that’s big enough to cover the sacrifices that you make,” Executive Director Bill Hanna said.

Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.