ISSAQUAH | SAMMAMISH
Friday, February 3, 2012
www.issaquahreporter.com
Drive to benefit homeless BY CELESTE GRACEY CGRACEY@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
Hundreds of Eastlake students met in front of the high school Tuesday afternoon to honor resource officer Stan Chapin in the exact spot he welcomed them every morning. KEVIN ENDEJAN, Issaquah & Sammamish Reporter
A HERO REMEMBERED Students, community honor beloved resource officer Stan Chapin BY KEVIN ENDEJAN KENDEJAN@ISSAQUAHREPORTER.COM
One by one they walked up to the concrete Eastlake High School sign — the exact spot he greeted every one of them with a smile and a wave each morning. Some laid flowers down. Others brought balloons. And nearly all of the 200-plus students who gathered after school Tuesday had stories to share about King County Sheriff ’s Deputy Stan Chapin, a resource officer for EHS and Inglewood Junior High whose unexpected death late Monday night stunned the Sammamish community. “Every day when I’d come to school, he was always there waving,” said senior Amber Cuozzo, who along with friend Marlena Masterleo, organized Tuesday’s remembrance at the entrance to the high school. “It was always a good start to the day.” Chapin, 61, died peacefully at his Bothell home Monday of what is believed to be natural causes. The near 40-year veteran of the King County Sheriff ’s Office was in his 12th year of working as a resource officer on the Plateau.
Stan Chapin was honored just last month as the 2011 Officer of the Year in the Sammamish Police Department. CONTRIBUTED
“He was there because he genuinely cared about the kids — he wanted to see the kids succeed,” Sammamish Police Chief Nate Elledge said. “This guy was just such a phenomenal officer. He touched the lives of so many students past and present.” Students reflected on their many fond memories of Chapin on Tuesday afternoon, highlighting everything from his spot-on impersonation of a velociraptor — the screeching dinosaur made famous in the Jurassic Park films — to his ability
to remember every student by name. “Not a lot of teenagers respect authority, but all of us respected him regardless of him being a police officer,” Masterleo said. “I just think it’s really great one person could connect all of us, even though we’re so different.” Compassion is one trait all students agreed made Chapin so special. Junior Austin Henderson recalled getting called into Chapin’s office as a sophomore. It was his first and only meeting in the resource officer’s office, but it was all it took to make a new friend. Every time after, Chapin greeted him with a hello and acknowledged him by name. “One time when I was walking into school, I was kind of having a tough day and he stopped me and talked to me for a while and just made sure everything was OK,” Henderson said. “That really just made my day.” By the time the final bell rang Tuesday, there were two posters stretched across the main upstairs hallway at Eastlake High School with hundreds of signatures and well-wishes from students and teachers. But Chapin’s impact still stretched far beyond the walls of EHS and IJH. SEE CHAPIN, 7
Churches are pulling together in a citywide effort to help keep homeless boys and men warm for the remainder of the winter. The clothing drive will help fill the shelves of Issaquah’s clothing bank as well as the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle. “We have a lot of homeless men that could really benefit from warm feet,” said Kim Ortego from the Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank. “There are teens in school that need clothing, too.” While about 80 percent of King County’s 8,900 homeless are men, most of the donations are women’s clothing. Churches hope to help balance that this winter when the need is the greatest. The event runs the entire month of February. Bring gently worn clothing to one of four churches or the Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank. Waterproof boots, new socks and new underwear top the list of requests. Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank 179 1st Ave. SE, Issaquah; 425-392-4123 Issaquah Christian Church 10328 Issaquah-Hobart Rd. SE, Issaquah; 425-392-5848 Foothills Baptist Church 10120 Issaquah Hobart Rd. SE, Issaquah; 425-392-5925 Mountain Creek Fellowship 165 Front St. N., Issaquah; 425-391-3416 Community Church of Issaquah 205 Mountain Park Blvd. SW, Issaquah; 4250-392-6447
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