A8
EASTERN OREGON
East Oregonian
Saturday, April 9, 2022
State trooper comes to the rescue with pizza for hungry teens
Recognition for
coming through
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
PRAIRIE CITY — A broken-
down school bus, hungry teenag-
ers and a concerned Oregon State
Police trooper all crossed paths on
the night of Feb. 11, and the outcome
was a win for all involved.
Trooper William Blood, working
out of OSP’s John Day outpost, was
on patrol that Friday when he came
across a disabled Union High School
bus on the side of Highway 26 in
Prairie City and approached to
check on the occupants, who turned
out to be the school’s boys and girls
basketball teams.
The engine was running, so the
bus had heat, but Blood learned the
basketball players would be stuck
in the area for some time as their
replacement bus made its way to
their location from Union. He also
learned the students riding the bus
were hungry and no restaurants or
convenience stores were open in the
immediate area.
Blood drove the 13 miles to John
Day and found lights on at The
Outpost Pizza, Pub & Grill, but the
establishment was closed. Then he
saw a woman working inside and
knocked on the door.
After he explained the situation,
the woman agreed to turn the ovens
back on and make fi ve large pizzas
for the stranded teens. Blood paid
for the pizzas — two pepperonis,
one Hawaiian, a meat lover’s and
a combo — out of his own pocket
and delivered the food to the hungry
youths back in Prairie City.
Blood has worked in law
enforcement for 20 years. His fi rst
posting was as a police offi cer in
Cornelius, southwest of Portland, in
2002. From there, he made his way
to the Hillsboro Police Department
in late 2009. Oregon State Police
hired him in November 2018, and
he’s been stationed in John Day
since early 2019.
A fi rst for all involved
Blood has a son on the John Day
basketball team, and on Feb. 11
he combined all of his breaks for
the day into one to go watch him
play against the Union team that
evening. Following the game, Blood
returned to work and spotted the
broken-down bus while on patrol
in Prairie City.
Justin Davis/Blue Mountain Eagle
Oregon State Police trooper William Blood stands beside his patrol car on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. OSP recog-
nized Blood for helping a busload of stranded teenagers in Prairie City.
“I saw the bus at probably around
9:30 p.m., and the game was long
over by then,” Blood said.
The bus was parked beside the
minimart, and Blood didn’t think
anything of it at fi rst.
“I thought it was a Prairie City
bus coming back into town drop-
ping kids off ,” he said.
But after seeing it was a Union
bus, he realized it likely was having
mechanical trouble. He turned
around and talked to the occupants
to fi nd out what was going on.
He learned it would be two-and-
half hours before their replace-
ment bus would arrive from Union.
The Union girls team had played
the Grant Union Lady Prospec-
tors early that night and had gotten
dinner at the Dairy Queen in John
Day during the boys’ game. The
boys, however, hadn’t had anything
to eat yet. It was this information
that pushed Blood into action and
sent him to The Outpost.
Shirley Taylor was one of the
people working at The Outpost
that night. She said she and another
employee were cleaning the restau-
rant after closing when Blood
knocked on the door and asked if
there was anything they could do
for the bus full of hungry student
athletes in Prairie City.
“He explained what the dilemma
was and that these kids were going
to be there for a while,” Taylor said.
Taylor and her co-worker swung
into action, fi ring up the ovens and
making fi ve large pizzas for the
stranded youths.
“We’ve helped out a lot of diff er-
ent people over the years,” Taylor
said, “but nothing like this.”
Fortunately, Taylor added,
Blood’s timing was just right — if
he’d shown up much later, nobody
would’ve been at the restaurant to
help the kids. “It was probably 15,
20 minutes before he missed us,”
she said.
Blood said it didn’t take much
convincing to get The Outpost crew
to make the pizzas.
“They were happy to do this,
and I give them all the thanks in the
world for doing that because they
certainly didn’t have to,” Blood
said. “They had everything cleaned
up and they got it all dirty again.”
Union High School Athletic
Director Chris Dunlap wasn’t at the
event, but he was notifi ed the bus
was having issues. As an athletic
director, he said, he was thinking of
the students and their safety.
“When I hear that, the first
thought is are the kids going to be
OK?,” he said. “Is the bus running
and does it have heat?”
The team planned to stop in
Baker City to get a bite to eat on
their way home, but the bus break-
down derailed that. Dunlap called
Blood’s actions a “lifesaver” and
said what he did “goes a long ways
showing small town community
and support. It reassured me that
people do care about each other and
take care of each other, especially in
Eastern Oregon.”
Like Taylor, Dunlap said he’s
never heard of anything like this
happening.
“I’ve heard of maybe check-
ing on somebody or running to
make a phone call for somebody,”
he said. “Never somebody to turn
around and say, ‘Hey, those kids
are hungry,’ and then find a busi-
ness that is open, get enough
pizzas to feed everybody and then
pay for that themselves. I’ve never
heard of it, and I’ve been around
athletics for a while.”
Dunlap said the students fi nally
made it back to Union sometime
around 1 a.m. Blood’s actions
were met with relief and gratitude
from the coaches and went a long
way toward making the mechani-
cal issues the teams were suff ering
through manageable.
Dunlap said he never got to
speak with Blood personally, but
the trooper’s actions speak to the
nature of people in Eastern Oregon.
“We have rivalries and we want
our teams to win, but we still take
care of each other when the time
comes,” Dunlap said. “We sepa-
rate those rivalries for the sake of
humanity.”
Blood said he felt like a “rock
star” when the kids saw him pull
the pizzas from the passenger seat
of his patrol vehicle.
“I stepped onto the bus and I
honestly couldn’t tell you (how but)
the pizzas were gone,” he said.
Following the pizza delivery,
Blood said, one of the Union basket-
ball players told his teammates to
get out of his way because he was
“going to give that man a hug,”
adding “that started the long line of
hugs from the kids.”
Blood said his own experiences
as a high school athlete aroused his
sympathies for the stranded basket-
ball team.
“I played sports in high school,”
he said, “and I know what it is like
to be in a small town where nothing
is open and you’re hungry.”
Blood’s supervisors with the
Oregon State Police also took notice
of the act of kindness.
For his deeds that night, OSP
awarded Blood a certificate of
recognition and two challenge
coins, one from OSP’s John Day
outpost and the other from the agen-
cy’s Ontario, Burns and John Day
area command.
Lt. Mark Duncan presented
Blood with the challenge coins and
certifi cate in a brief ceremony at the
John Day OSP outpost on March 30,
noting the challenge coins are not
handed out often and should be held
in high regard.
Blood “went above and
beyond, showing compassion,”
Duncan said, and “represents the
Oregon State Police and their core
values well.”
6
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