(Greensburg, IN) – Brendan Bridges is this year’s recipient of the James E. Greiwe Memorial Optimist of the Year Award, which was presented Thursday morning by the Greensburg Optimist Club.
Bridges serves as the Greensburg Community School Corporation’s Director of School Safety and is a retired City of Greensburg Police Chief.
He was also the driving force behind fundraising and construction of the Building Bridges Inclusion Playground at Rebekah Park.
“It’s nice to see not only with kids with disabilities out there but the grandparents and parents actually out there on that playground interacting,” Bridges said. “That’s what it’s all about – bringing everyone together for that inclusion and just getting along.”
Greensburg Mayor Joshua Marsh, Greensburg Schools Superintendent Tom Hunter and Decatur County Community Foundation Executive Director Tami Wenning delivered remarks about his willingness to help the community and take on tasks.
Marsh talked about how Bridges – while serving as police chief – expanded the Greensburg Police Department’s K9 program, brought in body-worn cameras to the department, offered mental health services to his officers, and shepherded the department through the COVID-19 pandemic and anti-police sentiment across the country during the summer of 2020.
The Mayor added Bridges accomplished all of this while working on the Inclusion Playground.
Bridges says it’s not about him but about the area as a whole.
“It’s a community award, and nothing we’ve been able to accomplish would not have been done without the community,” Bridges said. “I’m very grateful for everybody’s support, but I was very shocked (to receive the award).”
Thursday’s event was held at the Greensburg Community Bread of Life on Randal Street.
The award is named for the late Jim Greiwe, who received the first Optimist of the Year Award in 1977 and was posthumously honored in 1978.
