Mendota police, firefighters play kickball games with students

The annual Mendota kickball contest between first responders and students took place Friday morning.

Two games were played: The first was a matchup before school at Lincoln Elementary against the fourth grade class, and the second was a makeup game against the fifth grade students at Northbrook Middle School.

This is awesome. It’s great to see the interaction with the community.”

—  Dennis Rutishauser, Mendota fire chief

More than 100 students took on more than a dozen police officers and firefighters in a game that sometimes was more chaos than kickball.

“This is awesome,” Mendota Fire Chief Dennis Rutishauser said. “It’s great to see the interaction with the community.”

The event didn’t take place last year.

The tradition began in 2016, featuring uniformed members of the Mendota Police Department and Mendota Fire Department.

Mendota Police Chief Gregory Kellen also asked the La Salle County Sheriff’s Office to participate this year. Kellen said it is a great opportunity to spend time with students and have the community see they are kids at heart.

“It’s such a great community event,” Mendota School District 289 Superintendent K. Bradley Cox said. “It’s something we try to do every year.”

He said students were excited about the games and talked about them all week.

Lincoln Elementary Principal David Lawrence said the event is amazing.

“It’s a great event to have in the community and a real win-win for our town,” he said.