The village of Gibsonburg held a car show, music, food, raffles and a 5K on Saturday to raise money for Officer Maria Kisha, who was seriously hurt responding to a trespassing call last month. More than 100 people signed up for the 5K, and the officer, still recovering from her injuries, showed up to start the race herself, drawing cheers from the crowd gathered in her honor.
Police Chief Donald Karr said the support from the community has been constant since Kisha was hurt.
“Just even today, probably 100 people have stopped me just asking how our officers are doing, how we’re doing. Just offering their support and it’s truly appreciated,” Karr said.
“It’s overwhelming but in a good way,” he said.
The support started the same day Kisha was hurt. Oogie’s Pizza owner Roy Whitehead came into town, saw dozens of police cars and called the mayor.
“The mayor and I talked and we decided to spring into action, and feed everybody that was on scene that day and we just did what we thought was right,” Whitehead said.
Weeks later, that same support filled downtown.
Before the race began, race organizer and Sandusky County administrator Marc Glotzbecker said the crowd was hoping for one more thing.
“We’re really hoping we have a special guest race starter tonight, that would be really cool,” Glotzbecker said.
