A Missouri girl was surprised Saturday by dozens of police officers who came to a lemonade stand she set up outside her home to raise money to buy a police officer costume.
The girl, Hannah Pasley, 3, has been obsessed with police officers for as long as her parents, Amber and Josh Pasley, can remember.
Students raise $11,000 to help teacher battling cancer fulfill her bucket list Student's pizza essay helps her get into Yale“She was able to form sentences by about 18 months old and even then had a fascination I can’t even explain,” Amber Pasley told ABC News. “We don’t have any police officers in our family.”
Pasley added, “But when we go to the grocery store or the gas station and she sees officers, we have to stop and she has to shake their hands and we have to talk to them.”
Hannah, whose favorite show is the animated “Paw Patrol,” told her parents last Friday that she wanted to have her own lemonade stand at the family's garage sale.
“She said, ‘Mommy and daddy, I would like a lemonade stand because I would like my own money to get me a police uniform,’” Pasley recalled.
By mid-day Saturday, Hannah had raised the $40 she needed the costume. Her aunt drove her to a local Toys "R" Us store to purchase one.
When Hannah returned to the family’s home dressed in her police costume, her mom, aunt and a family friend mused that it would “make Hannah’s day” if a real-life police officer stopped by her lemonade stand.
The family friend, Sierra Moore, took to Facebook to post the request. Within the hour, police officers began stopping by the Pasley family’s home.
“We had had K-9 units, mounted patrol, deputies, a helicopter patrol and officers who came from different jurisdictions just to meet my Hannah,” said Pasley, who estimated that nearly 50 officers stopped by on Saturday.
“They came on their lunch breaks or after they’d worked long shifts,” she said. “Everyone told us they’d had a really hard day and it was really busy and after we put that post up things slowed down and it was like fate. Every single one said that.”
The police officers also insisted on contributing to Hannah’s lemonade fund, even though the family told them it was not necessary.
“By that point Hannah had determined that she wanted a police car so [she] was saving for a Power Wheels police cruiser,” Pasley said. “Once they heard that they just kept putting money in her jar.”
The police officers kept coming until around 8 p.m. Saturday night, according to Pasley. Hannah has not stopped talking about her surprise visitors since.
“She woke up Sunday and asked if more police officers were coming by,” Pasley said. “The Kansas City Police Department offered for us to come and tour the department and that has been on her mind heavy and steady, let me tell you.”
Pasley said she and her family are forever grateful to the officers who took time out of their day to make Hannah’s dream come true.
“What they did was just amazing. We never expected that, ever,” she said. “They treated our daughter so well and were just so kind.”