Page 34 - FOP August 2019 Magazine

So Happy Together
Chicago FOP picnic once again offers a much-needed respite for members
Eighth District Officer Joe Barrios and members of his family and the CPD family at the Chicago FOP picnic.
■ BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
As a distinctive aroma wafted through the annual Chicago Lodge 7 picnic at Gaelic Park, a scarce and all too-unfamiliar sensation filled the air. At least, all-too unfamiliar as of late.
Could this have been from the wacos (tacos made in a wok) Officer Thomas Paholke from Area South saturation had cooked up? Or maybe it was the carnitas, rib tips, rotisserie chicken and even some salmon Jose Sandoval and his boys from 011 had grilling.
Actually, something even more tantalizing added sizzle to a sweltering but unequivocally enjoyable and needed July day for Chicago FOP members. Here was a day when everybody once again enjoyed being a police officer, a day that doesn’t come around as much as it should. Here was a day to see Chicago Police Officers at their most effervescent, affable and collegial, something the public doesn’t always get to see, but should.
“It’s happiness,” Sandoval explains. “It’s our blue family com- ing together, showing the love.”
Happiness is the Chicago FOP picnic: reuniting with sisters and brothers you came on the job with; a day away from drill- ing to do some grilling; kids running sack races, riding on the Moby Dick and getting a chance to sit in the CPD helicopter or hang with the mounted unit; gift baskets of beverages and other prizes being raffled off at a rate of five per minute; and enough delicacies to make even Smoque BBQ envious.
Happiness is the truth at the Chicago FOP picnic. Members who have been attending since all those years ago when it was held at Santa’s Village continue to come every year because they know what happiness is to all of you on the job, and that’s what
34 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ AUGUST 2019
Jose Sandoval, an instructor at the academy, grills up a storm at the picnic every year.
they wanna do.
“There’s no work talk and there’s not a frown in sight,” ob-
serves Cricket Oboikovitz, the retired Chicago Police Officer and Lodge 7 staff member who helps coordinate this extravaganza. “We’re sitting here, and we were just saying how there is nothing better than hearing the sound of children’s laughter. Honestly, it sounds so simple, but hearing people be happy and get along, there’s nothing better.”
The attraction and magnitude of the picnic can be seen in re- tired officer Kenneth Moore. He had 20 years on and was work- ing in 004 when he had to take a disability retirement. But he