 The Pikeville City Police Department, with the help of some community partners, will be releasing a children's book soon dedicated to the memory of fallen officer Scotty Hamilton. Recently, we sat down with the author of this book, one of Pikeville PD's own, for more information. When I was riding it was obviously, we all knew that it was going to be a tribute to Scotty. He was definitely one of the main inspirations in here. And I was like, there's no better way to, you know, to tribute him, honor him. And, you know, Hammy is basically the cause of him. So it, we all work together as a community. It was a community wide project to, you know, create this wonderful tribute to Scotty. And just as an added bonus, it also will benefit the community through funding our Christmas with the first responder program. The book is basically Hammy comes to the police station and he takes the tour of the police station. And it's very much based on what we do here when kids come in and want to visit the police station. So he comes in and he'll learn about the life and the responsibilities of officers in the community. And he'll learn that, you know, officers are there to help, officers help change tires, they protect you from danger. At the police station, you can get your fingerprints done or if you need a police report, you come here. Or even if you're in an emergency, you can pull in here and we'll try to help you. So he is learning the importance of officers in this book and what they do for the community. And I, we are a very community based department. And I love that about the powerful police department. And I think that Hammy reflects that on like things that our officers do daily and that I'm sure most kids probably see. Not, not with just our department, but with every department locally. So I'm excited. I'm excited for that. Thompson also gave us a little more insight into the creative process she followed while sending Hammy on his first adventure. Hammy visits the police station is came from an idea when we ordered the stuff at Hammy's. That came from the idea of the Trooper Teddy's Captain Blankenship a couple of months ago. And during that process, we were raffling off a Hammy. And I took Hammy around town and you know, he said in the creative arts district and he broke parking tickets and he wrote in cruisers and for a while. And so when I was creating those posts, I was like, well, what else could I do? And I'd majored in English and I was like, what can I do to help raise funds for Christmas with the first responder? Because we were fundraising pretty hard at the time and it was starting the summer months were starting to dwindle down. And you know, I was like, what would be a good thing that go towards the Christmas with the first responder program? And I was like, kids book Hammy, Hammy, because I had been calling on the Hammy adventures on my Facebook post. And so I was like, Hammy, Hammy's going to visit the police station. And so I pitched the idea to Captain Russell Blankenship and to Chief Riddle. And they were like, that's a great idea. And I was like, well, when things come down a little bit, I'll work on it and see how far I can go. And so I wrote it and once I wrote it and I let everybody read it. They're like, yeah, this is really, really good. And I was like, okay. So I contacted Jeff over at the Appalachian is Express. And I was like, you know, I've written a kids book. I was like, I just need guidance because I didn't know who to reach out to. I said, I just need guidance on, you know, who can illustrate it for me. And so he was like, hey, I got an idea. It could be Chris Eppling. And I was like, okay. I was like, we'll see, you know, let's see if we can get it printed and like what the quote was. And he's like, give me about 15 minutes and I'll call you back. And I said, okay. So he did. And he was like, the hospital is going to sponsor this book. And he said, we'll print it and Chris will illustrate it. And I was like, okay. So that all happened in August. And now in December we have Hammy visits to the police station and all the funds that are raised from the book will go to our Christmas with a first responder program and our community outreach program. Here at Pikeville Medical Center's Heart and Vascular Institute. We have assembled a comprehensive team of cardiac specialists bringing expertise from all regions of the nation and the world. We have coupled that with cutting edge technology, providing them the best equipment and operating rooms available. The result is comprehensive cardiac care for the people of our region that is second to none. The Heart and Vascular Institute at Pikeville Medical Center. Thompson states that while the idea of writing a children's book has been a personal goal of hers for some time, she can't think of a better way to have accomplished it than by creating Hammy. She also hopes that this won't be the only adventure she gets to take with Hammy as she has plenty more ideas in store already. Writing a children's book was a thing on my bucket list. And I knew that I eventually at some point in my life I would write a children's book. I'm just so thrilled that not only did I mark a thing off my bucket list, but also it's something that's going to contribute to a great cause and a wonderful tribute to Scotty. And I think that at all, I don't know any better way I could have marked that bucket list off, that checklist off. I would like for Hammy to go on a lot of adventures. Like Hammy visits the fire station. Hammy helps the community. Hammy deals with bullying. Those kinds of things. I would like to see that those things come to fruition in the future. And you know, I just feel like Hammy has a lot of stories to tell that could really just benefit kids. And it's just going to also kind of keeps Scotty's memory alive. You know, I don't know if Officer Scott will be present in all of those books, but Hammy definitely will be. For now on Top News, I'm Joshua Slump.