FAIRWAY, Kan. — Its been just over two months since the Fairway Police Department lost one of their own, but an outpouring of community support continues. Ofc. Jonah Oswald lost his life in August after being shot in the line of duty, leaving a void within his department and community.
"Every time he would come in, he was just so warm and just a happy person and I never seen him without a smile on his face and he was just a very positive person," Hen House Store Director Kathy Scott recalled.
Hen House is a couple doors down from the Fairway Police Department and has set up a card station within the store. Scott says the initiative began in September with the store providing customers and residents cards to fill out and later give to their beloved police department.
"Every week we give them their messages and I wrote out a list of different things, all the reasons, so many reasons to be grateful for our police department here," she said.
More than 200 cards have been filled with messages of hope and gratitude and the department plans on putting together a photo album filled with those cards.
"We don't feel alone, it gives you comfort and it helps so we don't feel like we have to hold on to the pain alone," said Lt. M. Bayless with the Fairway Police Department. "It gives a reason because it takes some very awful, tragic event to happen and that makes it really hard sometimes to find the purpose."
The store plans to have the card station up through mid-October.
