Santa Maria police raised $22,000 for local Special Olympics athletes at the inaugural Tip-a-Cop dinner on Saturday night at the Veterans' Memorial Community Center.
The Tip-a-Cop fundraising dinner is sponsored by the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics (LETR), a volunteer movement with a goal to increase awareness and raise funds for the Special Olympics.
At the event, Santa Maria police officers, deputies, chiefs and the sheriff traded their badges for aprons and served as waiters at the community center, said Rudy Gutierrez, the recreation coordinator for the City of Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department.
All the tips they receive from the event is donated to Special Olympics, according to the LETR website.
If you missed the Santa Maria event, there are more Tip-a-Cop dinners coming to San Luis Obispo County.
The North County Tip-a-Cop dinner will take place at 5:30 p.m. and at 7 p.m. on May 5 at the Paso Robles Event Center.
The South County fundraiser is scheduled for 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. on May 7 in Cambria. The exact location has not yet been released.
There will also be a Tip-a-Cop dinner in the city of San Luis Obispo at 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Alex Madonna Expo Center.
Tickets for all the events above are coming soon, according to the Tip-a-Cop San Luis Obispo County website.
