LAKE STEVENS — When Kandy Brown was a teacher in the Snohomish School District, a school resource officer told her she’d make a good police volunteer.
At the time, the Snohomish Police Department didn’t have an open spot.
So she asked the Lake Stevens Police Department. The gig was hers.
About a dozen years later, Brown remains one of the city’s most dedicated volunteers, Interim Lake Stevens Police Chief Dan Lorentzen said.
“Kandy is like a mother hen,” the chief said. “She’s always willing to help.”
Brown, 65, grew up in south Snohomish County. She retired after teaching for more than 30 years in Snohomish, Marysville, Lakewood and Australia.
Over the years, she’s also volunteered for a mountain-rescue group and a cat shelter, and as a tutor at the Monroe Correctional Complex.
“Volunteering is a way of life for me,” she said.
When Lake Stevens police moved to their building on Grade Road a few years ago, Brown helped create a new organization system for their records. She also works with the kids who need to do court-ordered community service.
Brown lives on an acre at her Snohomish-area home, and she knows how to use heavy equipment, she said. When it’s needed, she tends to the grounds outside the police department. During Aquafest, she brings bottled water to the officers working patrol.
“There’s not a lot I can do about the big problems of the world,” she said. “I think if everybody tries to do a little something to make our community better, then hopefully it will work.”
She also runs “gobs of errands” for the department, she said.
On her down time, Brown doesn’t like sitting still, and she doesn’t own a TV.
She hits the library almost every week. She likes to find books on topics she knows nothing about, so she can learn something new.
“I couldn’t afford my habit if it wasn’t for the library,” she said.
For more information about volunteering for the city of Lake Stevens or the police department, call 425-334-1012.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com
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