It isn’t every day that kids get to climb inside a helicopter, straddle a horse, or sit on a motorcycle, but for the children who came out to watch the ninth annual Cops for Kids Fly-In at Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital on Sept. 18, it was the stuff of cherished memories.

“Kids tend to idolize cops anyway,” says Melissa King, special events planner for Children’s Hospital. “For them to be able to meet so many officers in person and climb all over their shiny equipment was simply awe-inspiring. You should have seen the looks on their faces!”

No sooner had the engines died on the helicopters than the kids came over to check things out. Some came on foot, others in wheelchairs, still others dragging their IV poles behind them. All seemed determined to get up close and personal with the officers and enjoy some quality time with their crime-fighting technology. At the end of the meet and greet session, everyone retreated back inside the hospital where each child got to select a toy as a gift from the officers.

The Cops for Kids Fly-In was organized in 1999 when officers Jeff Werblun, of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, and Don Miskulin, of the Riverside Police Department, started wondering what they could do to lighten the load of hospitalized children.

In addition to Loma Linda, the event has grown to include the UC Davis Children’s Hospital in Davis, Calif., and Shriners Hospitals for Children-Northern California, in Sacramento.

“Needless to say,” King adds, “the kids were ecstatic. We can’t thank the generous men and women from Cops for Kids enough for what they do!”