Swansea Girl Celebrates 10th Birthday With Swansea Police Department
Some 10-year-old birthday girls ask for princesses or unicorns for a birthday party theme, and some ask for prison outfits and water gun fights like Swansea's Brooke Baker.
What started as a silly idea, turned into a lighthearted, prison-themed birthday on Saturday for a very funny little girl.
“It started as a joke,” explained Brooke’s mother, Colleen.
It turns out that Brooke is quite the planner and has been throwing ideas around for her birthday since August.
“She’s always thinking and planning,” Colleen said. “So when I asked her if she had an idea yet and she kept saying no, I joked with her and said, ‘okay then, I’m going to dress you up in orange and we’ll do a prison theme and we’ll go do some community service and call the county police.’”
Colleen expected eye-rolling from her soon-to-be 10-year-old, but instead, Brooke was excited.
“She was all for it,” laughed Colleen. “No butterflies or anything for her, just prison-themed.”
Mom ran with the idea and started brainstorming.
She ordered bright orange shirts for all her daughter’s friends, set up a craft station to make license plates, bought temporary tattoos, and hosted a water gun fight in the front yard. As if that wasn’t clever enough, she decided to call on a friend in the Fall River Police Department to see if she could schedule a surprise visit from some officers.
Swansea officers Mulhern and Bouchard, as well as Swansea Sergeant Souza, dropped in to “make a few arrests” during the water gun fight in the front yard.
“The officers joined in on the water fight, took pictures, and even pinned my seven-year-old son with an honorary badge, who was wearing a police costume,” Colleen said.
It started out as a silly joke, but Brooke’s birthday turned into a fun day of “make-believe” and the Swansea police force was happy to join in.
“The police in this town are wonderful. They were so kind to show up, they blared the sirens before they left, it was great,” said Colleen.
At the age of 10, Brooke’s humor is big and bold, and her mother made sure to bring her silly idea to life for a very memorable birthday experience.