Saturday is the second annual Paint the Town Blue event at the Market at Park City from 11 - 2 p.m. Organizer and wife of a Park City police officer MeriAnn Boxall said it’s all in the name of showing support and appreciation for law enforcement.
“This is an event for people to come out and actually thank a police officer," Boxall said. "We’ll be handing out ribbons and wrist bands. We’ll also have a food truck there with lunch that can be provided. We had some people ask last year if they could make some donation so we thought this would be a good way for people to donate something. So they can buy lunch, I think it will be three dollars a plate and it will go toward the Fraternal Order of the Police which helps with ‘Shop With A Cop’ and some other community events. The Jazz Bear will be there this year. I think at 11:30 is when they’ll arrive and we’ll just have a lot of fun things going on and be able to hand out some ribbons.”
The event last year was part of a nationwide campaign and because it was such a big success - it’s now an annual tradition.
With the growing number of reports about police shootings, Boxall said officers don’t always feel the support of their communities and so events like Paint the Town Blue let them know their communities do in fact value their service.
“The community here is very supportive of the police department and I’m glad that he works in the department that he does," Boxall said. "But nationwide, we consistently, on the news and in the media it’s such negativity toward our police officers that we have to take a stand somehow.
Local businesses are getting in on the action by offering “blue” specials on Saturday. Boxall invited the community to participate by wearing blue and hoped they would go as far as to decorate their homes and cars in blue as well.