LAPD Officers Wait Tables to Benefit the Special Olympics

LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT
PRESS RELEASE
Friday, March 17, 2000

West Hills– “Hello, I am Captain Joe Curreri, LAPD and I’ll be your waiter this afternoon.” Is that LAPD Captain Joseph Curreri waiting tables? Yes, and a lot of other police officers, too. For a new perspective on, “To Protect and to Serve,” members of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Devonshire, Van Nuys, West Valley and Metropolitan Divisions, as well as Los Angeles School Police, Cal State Northridge University Police and FBI members will trade in their blue uniforms for waiter outfits for the sixth annual COPS and LOBSTERS event benefiting the Special Olympics.

These officers, from the various agencies, will wait tables on Thursday, March 23 and Friday, March 24 from 11:00 AM until the close of the dinner hour at the Red Lobster Restaurant, 22800 Vanowen Street, West Hills (corner of Vanowen Street and Fallbrook Avenue). This year’s goal is to raise $1,000,000 nationally. For the past five years, LAPD has been among the leading fund raising entities for the Special Olympics. With your help this year, we hope to be the #1 leading fund raising organization.

For a sixth year, LAPD officers are partnering with the Red Lobster chain and will volunteer as “celebrity waiters” for the day. Eighty per cent of the proceeds will return to the Valley Area Special Olympics program and 20 percent will go to the national program. Police Officers will greet diners at the door, fill glasses and otherwise cater to every dining whim. They intend to live up to the Department motto, To Protect and to Serve” on behalf of the Special Olympics.

Restaurant staff members will assist officers in their service, and diners will be able to give a tax-deductible donation to the officer in addition to the regular tip for the server. “The Cops and Lobsters, ‘Tip-a-Cop’ program is just one event to highlight LAPD’s open channel of communication with the public we serve and it shows our commitment, as officers, to the hard-working athletes who compete in the Special Olympics,” stated Sergeant Dan Mastro.

For further information, please contact Sergeant Dan Mastro at 818-756-8285.

Note: Officers working this event are doing so off duty.

For Release 2:00 pm PST
March 17, 2000