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Scott County sheriff sponsors holiday program for final time
BENTON - For more than 25 years, Scott County Sheriff Bill Ferrell has been sending a special holiday message: "Have you hugged your kid today?" As in the past, his message is available on bumper stickers distributed by Ferrell and his deputies this Christmas season. This will be the final year for the retiring sheriff's sponsorship of the program.
"The Christmas season is the appropriate time to bring attention to the relationship between children and their parents or the guardians who care for them," said Ferrell.
"Communication is the key. Caring for someone cannot be taken for granted. It is a feeling that must be demonstrated and hugging is the statement that says, 'I care.'"
The program began shortly after Ferrell became sheriff. While attending a program for new sheriffs sponsored by the National Sheriffs Institute at the University of Southern California, he had talked with a fellow officer who was implementing the program in his community.
"It was his idea," Ferrell noted. "We talked about it. I told him I wanted to do it too. I came up with my version and it started that Christmas." That was in 1977. In the last 26 years, Ferrell estimates that more than 8,000 bumper stickers have been distributed, adding that there is no way to be sure how many different places the bumper stickers have gone. In trying to keep a log on the requests for the stickers, requests have come from California, Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Nevada, Tennessee and Illinois to name a few.
"Bumper stickers stay on vehicles and people notice them. I have had people who said they had their kids in the car with them when they have seen the bumper sticker on the back of another car, and it made them realize just how important their children are to them." Ferrell said. "It just touched them and made them want to reach out and hold their kids." That is the message he has tried to convey to parents throughout the years.
With the increasing problems of juvenile crime and delinquency, there is no easy solution, but Ferrell said that "showing your child that you care is a beginning. The bumper sticker says it all in a very simple manner, and so do hugs.
"It says, 'I love you. I care for you and I am concerned for your welfare. I want you to be the best person you can be.' This message given genuinely to the child will be understood, appreciated and reciprocated."
The bumper stickers are available at the Scott County Sheriff's office in Benton and the license bureau in Sikeston.