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Dunk-A-Cop Raises Funds For K9 Unit

By KBJR News 1
June 25, 2011 Updated Jun 25, 2011 at 7:08 PM CDT

Cloquet, MN (Northland's NewsCenter) -A contest to hit a target with a ball, with the ultimate target of receiving a dog for the K9 unit.

"There was a young boy in fifth grade who decided that he wanted to raise money to replace the Fond du Lac police department K9. So his idea was to have a dunk a cop. So I'm here today and as you can see, from the outfit here, I've been dunked," said Carlton County Sheriff Kelly Lake.

The FonDuloc Police departments dog of old is in need of retirement and with that story making the paper, Joe's mother Cassie Diver realized a twinkle in the eye of her son when the news was broken to him.

"He had heard that the dog needs to retire. That our current dog Victor is getting older and he needs to be replaced and it costs a lot of money. It's thousands of dollars to purchase a dog and like any other department, funding is not available for new K9's," said Diver.

And today was the day that he could have a little fun, all while trying to raise money for a dog that he wants to give to the Police Department.

"He wanted to have fun fundraisers, it's what his goal as been so he thought that this would be a great opportunity and we all did that it would really make a lot of money to help support his cause," said Diver.

"Well what we're doing right now out here is we're trying to raise more money for the K9 fund," said Joe Bauer.

A dollar was all it took to make an officer feel like they were in the middle of Lake Superior.

"I think they might have put ice cubes in it prior to us going in I'm not sure but I know it was straight out of the hose and really cold," said Lake.

Joe's goal of $3,000 looks to be well attainable. The gratitude for his good deed is shown by the support for today's event.

"I'm proud of this young man. He took it upon himself to take this cause up and raise some money and yeah I'm very proud of him."

Joe is certainly bringing a sense of pride to his community.

The dunk tank today raised $540 today toward the purchase of a new K9.

Joe Bauer has now raised nearly 15 percent of his goal of $7,000, the minimum amount for a police service dog.

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