York Regional Police have named their chief for a day

York Regional Police has announced that Grade 5 student Gajanen Kukaneshan, from Armadale Public School in Markham, is the winner of the annual Chieffor a-Day contest after delivering his winning essay before a panel of judges last month.

Gajanen won the panel's praises as he spoke about the importance of people volunteering their time to make a difference in their community. He talked at length about the dedicated service Detective Constable Rob Plunkett gave to both policing and his community by his very active involvement with Special Olympics before he was killed in the line of duty in August.

Tomorrow (April 17) will see Gajanen will don a specially made uniform, give Police Chief Armand La Barge a day off and take over the helm of York Regional Police. He will be responsible for the management of 1,325 sworn officers and 443 civilians; a huge task for someone who is only 11 years old.

He will be sworn in at 9 a.m. that day. After being sworn in, he will visit the Community Safety Village and watch as the four-legged members of the Canine Unit perform a demonstration. He'll then be off to dine with a member of the Executive Command Team at East Side Mario's in Aurora. After lunch, Gajanen will have a tour of the various specialized units, including Air Support, Traffic and Emergency Response and finally end his fun-filled day at around 3:30 p.m.

The Chief-for-a-Day contest is sponsored by the York Regional Police Appreciation Dinner Committee and this year 156 schools in the York Region District School Board participated. Students were asked to prepare an essay and six finalists were chosen. All the participants were excellent.

Gajanen will present his speech again in front of 1,000 people in attendance at the 16th Annual Police Appreciation Dinner, which will be held April 24. This event is a fund-raising benefit for policing programs in the community. To date, more than $2 million dollars has been raised for such worthwhile police projects such as the purchase of Police Service Dogs, the Mobile Police Station, the York Regional Police bus and Crime Stoppers programs.

"All of the participants in this year's Chief for a Day contest did an excellent job," La Barge declared. "Gajanen's enthusiasm and confidence will assist him in his duties as Chief for a Day as he takes on the job of leading one of Canada's most progressive police service. It is heartwarming to see today's youth wanting to get involved in their communities. To see someone as young as Gajanen recognize the importance of volunteering is inspiring. I am confident his actions and the actions of heroes like Rob Plunkett will inspire other young people to get involved in their community."