About Us
In 2002 the Keokuk Police Dept. in Keokuk Ia. decided to take a proactive approach to dealing with the problem of juvenile delinquency in their community. They began looking for a crime prevention program, designed to reach troubled youth, to implement as part of their crime prevention efforts. They researched many of the national programs available such as Teens, Crime, and Community, Youth As A Resource etc. All were good programs, but none of them seemed to fit exactly what they were looking for, due to either budgetary reasons or manpower shortages. Ultimately they decided to create an original program unique to the Keokuk Police Dept. that would achieve certain goals and that they would be comfortable with financially.
Sgt. Ivan Parrish, the departments crime prevention coordinator, set out to create a program that would focus on kids who had already been in trouble and were on probation, attempting to reach them in a positive way while fulfilling their court ordered community service work. They wanted a program that utilizes these kids to do something productive and good for someone else as well. Ultimately what was created was a program that would be called the Guardian Angel Project.
The Guardian Angel Project is an eight-week program that would meet once a week for a two-hour period. The program would pair the troubled youth with a positive role model from the community. The positive role models would include individuals from the community such as police officers, fire fighters, teachers, preachers, youth ministers etc. The kids and their role models would work together to create a ceramic guardian angel figurine. They would mold it, clean it up, and paint it throughout the eight-week period. Once the angel figurine was complete they would deliver what they created to a sick child in the hospital.
There are several points to this program that Sgt. Parrish was hoping to impact these troubled kids with. They are, 1) to create something with their hands. 2) Meet new and positive people. 3) Build a relationship with the police on a different level.
4) Gain a sense of pride and self-satisfaction for having done something good for someone else. 5) Come away from the program feeling fortunate and thankful for their lives, that no matter how bad they think they have it they are still healthy and capable of doing good things for others. Sgt Parrish felt that if any of these goals were achieved the program would be a success.
Once the concept of the Guardian Angel Project had been created, the next obstacle was to recruit the help needed to make the program a reality. The Keokuk Police Dept. would need a ceramic instructor, volunteers from the community to be role models, a facility to do the ceramic work in, convince the Lee County Juvenile Probation office to participate in the project and help in selecting the kids, and children to deliver the angels to. Sgt. Parrish began pitching the idea to the public while speaking to civic organizations and community groups. Immediately volunteers began to come out of the woodwork. In just a matter of weeks the program had a ceramic expert on board to instruct the program, and a diverse and talented group of role models who had volunteered their time to the project. The Keokuk Police Dept. reached out to Keokuk’s local school system for an art room and the Keokuk Middle School was more than happy to donate their facilities for the program. The Lee County Probation office was also on board and assisted in selecting the right kids for the program. Sgt. Parrish reached out to The Children’s Hospital of Iowa at the University of Iowa in Iowa City to be the programs host facility. The staff at the hospital agreed to be their host and agreed to work closely with the program to make sure it was a success and at the same time to be considerate of the sick children.
The first annual Guardian Angel Project began in August 2003. On the first night Sgt. Parrish spoke to the group and explained to the kids what the program was about and what he expected from them. He challenged them to take the program serious and do their best work to create something beautiful for these very sick children. He explained that the angel figurines they create will more than likely be treasured by these children and their families, and will probably be displayed in a curio cabinet or on a mantle in these peoples homes for years as a symbol of recovery or remembrance depending on the out come of their struggle with disease and sickness. What happened next was exactly what the Keokuk Police Dept. had prayed would happen, the kids went to work on their angels, they became committed to doing their best, and over the next eight weeks they all created beautiful figurines to deliver to the sick kids.
Once all the angels were completed the programs trip to The Children’s Hospital of Iowa was planned. The group visited the hospital on October 18th, 2004. Along with the angels the kids would deliver the Keokuk Police Dept. also supplied special made shirts bearing the Guardian Angel Project logo for all in the program as well as for the sick children receiving the angels. The hospital staff had selected the children who would receive the angels upon the groups visit. The hospital staff advised that all the recipients had life threatening illnesses. Some of the children were being treated for cancer of one type or another, and some were waiting for heart transplants among other illnesses. Out of consideration for the patient’s privacy the group was asked not to inquire about the children’s medical condition unless they or their family volunteered the information. They found that most of the families openly shared their child’s condition and struggles with them. All of the children were very pleased with their angels as well as were their families. In many of the rooms they visited it was not uncommon for the kids and role models to be met with hugs and tears of gratitude. As they made their way from room to room it became obvious that the kids in the program were being deeply touched by the experience and at times were, themselves, moved to tears out of compassion for the children suffering in the hospital, and by the fact that they had helped lift their spirits. They realized that these angels, which just eight weeks before had been nothing more than wet mud, had now become powerful symbols of hope and reassurance to these sick children and their families.
After all the angels had been delivered the Keokuk Police Dept. treated the kids and their role models to lunch at the Olive Garden where the group had the opportunity to reflect on the visit to the hospital. Many of the kids stated they felt they had taken their lives for granted, and that they realize they have a second chance. After hearing these comments from the kids, Sgt. Parrish realized the Guardian Angel Project had achieved what Keokuk Police Department had set out to accomplish, and the program was a success.
After the 2003 Guardian Angel Project had ended Sgt. Parrish became aware of another moving story that had transpired from the Guardian Angel Projects visit to the Children’s Hospital of Iowa. One of the recipients of a guardian angel was a six-year-old boy named Eric John Schonhoff. Unbeknownst to the participants of the Guardian Angel Project when they visited Eric’s rooms that Eric had been given only two weeks to live. Eric was suffering from a form of cancer called Burkits Lymphoma. Eric lost his battle with cancer and passed away on October 27th, 2003, just nine days after he received his angel from the program. Shelly Schonhoff, Erics mother, advised Sgt. Parrish that Eric had been so touched by his guardian angel that he had wrapped it up in Christmas paper, set it aside, and requested to be buried with his angel so he could take it to heaven with him and give it as a gift to GOD. His parents honored his request and he was indeed buried with his angel. Shelly Schonhoff shared this with the Keokuk Police Dept. in a letter written to all who participated in the Guardian Angel Project. This letter can be read in its entirety in the Eric Schonhoff area of this web site.
Just as Sgt. Parrish had stated to the kids in the program on the night of their first meeting, the angel they had created had become a very special symbol to a family whose child had received one. When Sgt. Parrish began creating this program he believed it would touch the people involved, but he never imagined it would touch anyone as deeply as it touched the Schonhoff family. Because Eric’s actions epitomized the spirit of the Guardian Angel Project, and has since become a powerful part of the program, the Guardian Angel Project has been dedicated to his memory for as long as the program exists, and Eric’s name has been added to the programs badge logo around it’s seal. Reaching troubled youth and uplifting the spirits of desperately ill children in the hospital have become Eric’s legacy.
The Keokuk Police Department has enjoyed implementing this successful program since 2003 and has made it a permanent part of their crime prevention efforts. While the program continues to grow and positively benefit the Keokuk community and the troubled youth it was designed for, the Keokuk Police Dept. would like to see the program achieve one more thing. They would like to see the Guardian Angel Project spread beyond Keokuk to other police departments and become part of their crime prevention efforts. The Keokuk Police Dept. feels the Guardian Angel Project achieves the highest standard of community oriented policing on several levels. 1) It creates a partnership with citizens as role models. 2) It utilizes public and community organizations as partners to supply facilities, such as Community schools art rooms, local art studios, children’s hospital etc. 3) It utilizes the role model theory. 4) The program appears to boost moral among officers who participate, and lastly and least of all it is a great program for a departments public relations. One of the main concerns in society are the troubled youth who are getting into trouble in our communities, and everyone’s heart goes out to sick children and their families. With a unique crime prevention program like the Guardian Angel Project that marries both issues a department is likely to have a lot of community support, both by way of donations and volunteerism.
The Keokuk Police Department has made it easy for other departments to start their own Guardian Angel Project by creating a kit to guide them through the process of coordinating a program and maintaining one as well. This kit includes a 48 page guidebook along with a DVD presentation about the program titled "The Power Of Compassion". The video presentation will allow an agency to promote the program to the community, city councils, and department administration, and in a matter of minutes they will have been enlightened as to what the Guardian Angel Project is, what it is design to do, how it operates and what it has accomplished. They will also be able to see powerful footage of the teens and their role models delivering their angels to the children at the Children’s Hospital of Iowa. To help defray the expense of creating these kits the Keokuk Police Department has to charge a $35.00 fee for these kits. This fee of $35.00 includes the shipping charges.
The company who created the molds that make the angel figurines we use is Creative Paradise in Goddard Kansas. They have recently agreed to give the Guardian Angel Project the rights of ownership of this guardian angel figurine and the molds that create them. By owning these rights no one else in the world can purchase or manufacture one of these angels, or the molds they are created from unless they are a member of the Guardian Angel Project. We sought to acquire the rights to this figurine, as we want other departments to also use this figurine in their programs. This way the Guardian Angel Project will be uniform no matter where it is being implemented and it will also act as a fitting memorial to Eric Schonhoff.
The Guardian Angel Project also has a trade marked badge logo that participating agencies can use with their departments name incorporated in the design. The Guardian Angel Project has also acquired venders to supply the programs apparel at affordable prices.
Participating agencies will be asked to sign an agreement to honor the essential elements of the program. These elements are 1) They use our angel figurine. 2) They honor the Eric Schonhoff dedication. 3) The program couples troubled kids with role models and makes the angels for sick children. 4) They use our badge logo with Eric Schonhoffs name around the seal and 5) they purchase their programs apparel through the Guardian Angel Project web site.
We are excited at the prospect of this crime prevention program growing and touching other communities. We believe law enforcement agencies who implement the Guardian Angel Project as a part of their regular crime prevention efforts will be richly blessed just as we have.
Guardian Angel Newsletter