Local barbershop donates proceeds to help Payson police buy K-9

PAYSON — The Payson Police Department is launching an initiative to "bring home another hero," and a local barber shop has stepped in to help.

For the past two days, the Fellas Barbershop in Payson has been donating all proceeds to help the department purchase a new K-9 dog for training. Director of operations Jorge Garcia said that when the barbershop heard that the department was in need of help, they knew right away that it was something they wanted to be part of.

"Last week, we saw a post that the Payson Police Department was short about $7,000 to get the dog, and that's when we decided to join in," Garcia told KSL. "We decided we would take Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and donate 100% toward purchasing the K-9."

Garcia said 185 haircuts will be enough to reach the fundraising goal, adding that anything beyond that will be donated to the department's K-9 program.

"We were told that it will cost about $23,000 to train and sustain a K-9 police dog, and we want to help with that as well," he said.

Two days into the fundraising efforts, Garcia said things have gone really well and they have seen strong support from the law enforcement community and locals across the state.

"On the first day, the first five customers were police officers from different departments," he said, adding that helping police officers and veterans is something the shop aims to do.

"Our goal has always been to support veterans and first-responders," he said. "Last week, we were at our shop in West Jordan doing cuts for a dispatcher who is going through chemotherapy. Every year, we go to police stations, and we spend a full day at each station and give cuts to officers as well."

Garcia said barbers from other Fellas Barber Shops from around the state have donated their time at the Payson shop to ensure there are enough barbers to go around. He also said that while proceeds from haircuts are only being donated at the Payson location, there is a way to donate at each of their 15 locations statewide.

"We have locations from Logan to Cedar City," he said. "We've had officers and locals go to other locations and say they want to donate to purchasing the K-9 dog in Payson, and we have a QR code they can scan and donate if they want to."

The Fellas Barber Shop in Payson is located at 10 S. Main Street. It is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with Friday being the last day proceeds will be donated to the cause.

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