By Bruce Karnick

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The Hastings Police Department and Dakota County Sheriff’s Office competed against each other in what they call their “Sound the Siren” fundraiser. This friendly competition pits the departments against each other to see who can raise the most food items for the Food 4 Kids program run by the United Way of Hastings.

The winner was kept under wraps until Friday morning, June 3 at 10 a.m.

The winner was… Food 4 Kids! Deputy Hanah Martin and Officer Whitney Rinowski were the hosts of the event again this year. Deputy Martin introduced Chief David Wilske and Chief Deputy Joe Leko.

The Sheriff’s Office collected 799 items and $150. One dollar donated equates to two items, giving the DSCO a total of 1,099 items.

The Hastings Police Department collected 1,400 items along with $1,100 for a grand total of 3,600 items. The Chief had an ace up his sleeve, a lastminute plan to do a food drive at Cub Foods that significantly bumped their total items collected.

That did not sit well with the DSCO staff in attendance, especial Chief Deputy Leko, who quickly pulled out his wallet to see if he could buy his way out of the pie in the face. Once he realized it would be over $1,100 dollars, he realized he could swallow his pride, take a pie to the face, and put a little extra work in next year to enact his revenge.

He would not need to wait that long though. With it being Chief Wilske’s first year as chief, during the Sound the Siren event, he also took a pie to the face as a reminder of what is at stake for the future competition.

Overall, it is clear that a lot of fun was had between the departments and a great cause was supported with over 5,000 food items collected for the Food 4 Kids program here in Hastings.

A huge shout out to those who donated and to the teams for their hard work with the collections.