By Morgan Taylor, Reporter
OKMULGEE, Oklahoma – The Muscogee (Creek) Nation Lighthorse Department was awarded the K-9 Grant from Aftermath Services.
This grant in the amount of $250 will benefit the Lighthorse K-9 Unit.
Aftermath Services provides trauma cleaning and biohazard services all over the nation while providing grants including the K-9 Grant.
Aftermath Services Regional Marketing Manager Tom Donalson claims that the MCN Lighthorse Department was the only award granted in the state.
“We do bile clean up to help families out in times of crisis,” Donalson said. “We also support law enforcement, where a lot of companies have pulled away from it, we are moving towards it.”
Aftermath provides three grants a year that are law enforcement related.
“One is for training, one is for K-9, and one is for officers that are involved in the community,” Donalson said.
The MCN Lighthorse is one of 37 recipients out of 455 total applicants.
“The choices were very tough and we tried to spread the love,” Donalson said.
The MCN Lighthorse Special Operations Captain and K-9 Unit Captain Patrick Williams says that grant writer Desiree Roberts nominated the agency to apply for this after a big arrest.
“We had just arrested around 25 different people in Okfuskee County for trafficking charges of methamphetamine,” Capt. Williams said. “So, Des [Desiree] came across this grant and put this in there. We are trying to build our program and get more canines on at our department to help our citizens. We are pushing forward, every little bit helps, and this greatly helps our process. Hopefully, next year we will have more dogs and be able to help even more.”
According to Capt. Williams the unit looks to invest in dogs for training purposes, patrolling, and bomb detection.
“When there are big events, we want to be able to assist those agencies and clear those areas,” Capt. Williams said. “Like football games at the Ford Center, help them clear their areas for bombs and things like that.”
The MCN Lighthorse K-9 Unit looks forward to applying for this grant next year and also expanding the department.
“We are trying to make our program grow and we will apply for it next year,” Capt. William said. “We were the only ones in Oklahoma to receive this so we will continue to push forward and get more dogs involved in our department.”
