ASHLAND — Ever since police departments loosened their policies regarding facial hair as a way of attracting and keeping officers, the Beards For Bucks fundraisers gradually lost their effectiveness. Growing a beard no longer was a big deal, so Ashland Police Sergeant John Moretto suggested something different to raise money for the Child Advocacy Center this year: For every $100 collected in jars placed throughout the community, he would spend an hour in “lockup” inside a cage at Belletetes, the former Ashland Lumber Company.
“Basically, I get bailed in instead of being bailed out,” Moretto said from inside his chain-link enclosure on a blustery Tuesday morning.
“When we originally proposed it, I was going to do it on my own time,” he said, “but we’re doubled up on staffing on this particular day, so the chief said just take what would be your night hours and shift them to day hours.”
During the collection period, the campaign raised more than $1,200, which meant that Moretto would spend 12-plus hours in confinement. With collection jars still out, he estimated that, before it is over, the effort will have raised about $1,600 for the Child Advocacy Center, a program affiliated with the Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock (CHaD) which has an office in Plymouth as well as other locations around the state.
“The goal of this was kind of a test to see how it would go with the public,” Moretto said. The first year having been as successful as it was, he said that going into another year, he would like to challenge other departments and “see who can get locked into their cage longer, making it an inter-department kind of challenge.”
Since it was his idea, Moretto volunteered to be the first to sit in a cage.
“I’m not the kind of guy that would ask anybody to do anything that I wouldn’t do,” he said, “especially this first time that we’ve done this event.”
The sergeant said his department uses the Child Advocacy frequently.
“When you’re dealing with little juveniles, you know, anywhere from two, three years old, just being in front of a police officer’s a big, scary thing. Being able to have trained professionals that can sit down in a neutral, child-friendly environment and be able to communicate with them and find out what’s going on is huge for us. That’s the only reason that I would sit out here in the cold for 12-plus hours.”
He expressed gratitude to Belletetes for creating the cage and providing a heater under the chair he would be using.
“These guys have gone way out of their way to facilitate this for us,” Moretto said. “It’s been good.”