Mt. Pleasant Borough girl delivers Halloween 'survival kits' to area police

Mt. Pleasant’s annual Halloween parade went off without a hitch Wednesday night, but the borough police department got their own surprise Friday in the form of a “survival kit” of treats, courtesy of 12-year-old Arianna Cholock.

In fact, the Mt. Pleasant Area School District seventh grader made a point to deliver individual treat bags with a personalized note this week to police departments in Greensburg, Scottdale, South Greensburg and Southwest Greensburg.

“I just wanted to give back and show them they are appreciated for what they do,” Cholock said Friday as she dropped off several bags of candy for officers to Mt. Pleasant Police Chief George Grippo.

Cholock said she was was recently thinking about one of her dad’s friends, late Mt. Pleasant assistant police Chief Daniel “Zill” Zilli, who died in 2016 at age 46.

The junior high school student still wears a wristband bearing Zilli’s name in his memory.

Cholock’s father, Rico, accompanied Arianna with the deliveries that began Wednesday and included Friday’s in their hometown.

“She came to me with the idea and I thought, “Wow”, that’s so cool. Dan was a very close friend of mine,” the elder Cholock said.

Arianna also printed a special label attached to the exterior of the treat bags describing the meaning of each type of candy inside.

“Lifesavers are in there because (police) save lives. And Smarties to give them wisdom making split second decisions… and so on like that,” Arianna said.

The note concludes “Thank you for all you do. YOU ARE APPRECIATED!”

Grippo said the treat bags and messages were a “wonderful” gift and will be enjoyed by the officers..

“It’s just awesome and it’s really appreciated,” Grippo said.

“For someone that age, taking all that time and effort, it certainly is unique today,” Grippo said.

Photographs of the bags were also posted on Southwest Greensburg Borough’s Facebook page.