It's not an easy feat, but one Kansas City, Kan. girl has captured the hearts of the entire KCK Police Dept.
"Everyone else has friends and I think it's not fair that I don't have friends and everyone else does," said Patricia Gardner, 7.
Except little Patricia said that's not really true anymore. Not since last week when she befriended a group of KCK community officers after she didn't make it home from school.
Patricia said it all happened "by me getting off at the wrong bus stop," she explained. "I told him I didn't have any friends and so they decided to be my friends."
Patricia's stepmother called police when Patricia did not get home on time last Wednesday. Police found Patricia in the front yard of one of her classmates.
"It was cold outside," said KCK community police officer Elaine Moore. "We have a very safe community, but there's always the unknown. A seven-year-old child out there alone, especially if she's looking for friends - what if she finds the wrong friend. It concerns us."
But that concern turned to relief and then to heartache Wednesday when officers found seven-year-old Patricia. The reason she didn't go home immediately after school - she wanted to find someone who'd be her friend.
"Once she got home she was crying and hugging her dog and I went over and asked her what's wrong," explained Moore. "She said she had no friends. I told her if she did not do that again and get off at the wrong bus stop that I would be her friend and I looked over to the other officers and said, 'hey guys let's be her friend.' Everyone agreed. I told her to count to see how many new friends she had and that she never had to be alone again."
The officers took their kindness a step futher on Tuesday by throwing Patricia and the rest of her second grade class a Valentine's Day themed pizza party to show them what friendship is really all about.
"We want to be the good guys in the community and this is probably one of the best ways to do it is to go out and interact with the community," said Officer Thomas Tomasic.
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Terra Hall can be reached at terra.hall@kshb.com.
