Pleasant Grove Police Honorary Col. Pat Wimmer helped gather donations for the Navajo Nation in the past, but being out of the state, she asked the school resource officer to head up the donations drive.

“I wanted to get kids involved. As a school resource officer, I thought this would be a great teaching opportunity for these kids to learn about service,” Pleasant Grove Detective Chris Ruiz said. “The needed items are stuffed animals, coloring books, crayons, colored pencils, small educational items for children, picture books, backpacks, general school supplies and calculators. They’re requesting that all items be new, due to COVID.”

Ruiz is working with Lt. Eric Trevizo of the Navajo Nation Fire Department and the Northern Diné COVID-19 Relief Effort. This is a coalition network effort serving 20 Northern Navajo Nation Agency communities, centered in Shiprock, New Mexico, according to the coalition’s website.

“I run the Law Enforcement Club and the Multicultural Club and work with Latinos in Action at Pleasant Grove High School. We got together and had four giant cardboard boxes donated by Best Buy,” Ruiz said. “We decorated them, put up signs, the Latinos in Action put up signs in Spanish. We’re going to put this on social media and get the word out. Ideally, I would love to have these boxes overflowing with these items that are needed. They are in urgent need.”

Courtesy Chris Ruiz

COVID-19 hit the Navajo Nation incredibly hard. They are still having problems with getting enough volunteers to collect and distribute donations to those in need, and Pleasant Grove is hoping to help where they can. “Supplies aren’t coming in. There aren’t a lot of donations coming in right now for these items. That’s why they had to reach out for these resources,” Ruiz said.

As part of this project, Amazon is donating cleaning supplies and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is donating 1,200 food boxes, ready for distribution.

The needed items will be collected at Pleasant Grove High School until March 11. Donations can be dropped off at the high school near the front office between 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Ruiz can be contacted at cruiz@pgcity.org for more information about donations.

After March 11, Ruiz and others will be delivering the items to Shiprock, New Mexico, and representatives there will distribute them to reservation communities. “I’m excited to deliver these goods that they absolutely need,” Ruiz said.