The Knoxville Police Department hosted its annual Helmets and Hotdogs event Monday afternoon. It normally takes place at the end of the school year, but was postponed due to COVID-19. School Resource Officer Kyle Keller with the department says that despite the short notice, it was a great turnout.

“With short notice, I was really surprised with the number we had today. It turned out to be a great event, we ran out of helmets, and we had approximately 120 helmets. We had some kids that were last in line that couldn’t get a helmet, so I made arrangements with them to contact me to try to get a helmet in the next couple of weeks. I don’t know how many we had donated here today. I will still be accepting donations if people want to get a hold of me at the police department, or bring the helmets to the police department, that would be great. I think there’s still a lot of kids that could use them, and if anything we could use them for next year.”

56 vehicles came through the drive through event, and 230 meals were served. Students in Pre-K through 5th Grade and their parents were able to drive through the Knoxville High School parking lot to receive a free bicycle helmet and a hot dog meal to help encourage safe bicycling practices during the summer. The department hopes to hold next year’s event as scheduled at the end of the school year.