Local Spotlight:
Brigantine Local 204
Cole Mulholland with members of Brigantine Local 204.
Where a dream came true
Local 204 turns Brigantine into a magic kingdom for ailing boy
n BY LISA ARCELLA
n PHOTOS BY JIM CONNOLLY
Brigantine Local 204 ventured into lofty stature a few weeks
ago, and at the same time offered one of the most powerful ser-
vices law enforcement can render to the community: making
dreams come true.
Nine-year-old Cole Mulholland had a dream that helped him
face his progressive and terminal illness. Mitochondrial dis-
ease has put the Brigantine boy in and out of the hospital more
times than he can remember. It can lead to everything from loss
of muscle coordination, muscle weakness, visual problems, to
liver or kidney disease, and even cause Cole to have a stroke at
four years old.
However, no matter how uncertain his future may be, Cole
has never given up his dream of one day becoming a police of-
ficer.
“Cole has a bucket list,” mom Michele says. “It was meeting
Batman, the Ghostbusters, going to Disney and becoming a po-
lice officer.”
A fateful meeting with a Brigantine Local 204 member Chris-
topher Ludy enabled that dream to come true in a big way on
May 23. Ludy ran into Cole and his mom at the local Wawa and
while the excited little boy got a closer look at the inside of a real
police car, his mom told Ludy Cole’s story.
“His mom explained that he had a rare disease and had been
in the hospital for multiple surgeries,” Ludy remembers. “She
said he doesn’t have friends because he can’t go to school since
he is in and out of the hospital so often. Once she said how
much he wanted to be a police officer, it just kind of blossomed
from there.”
When Ludy returned to the department, he relayed the story
to his Local 204 colleague Jim Powderly, who ran with the idea
of creating a day for Cole that he would never forget. And on
May 23, Cole served as a Brigantine Police Officer for the day.
“Our hearts really went out to this kid,” Powderly explained.
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NEW JERSEY COPS
■ JUNE 2017
Help for Cole
A GoFundMe page has been established to help cover the
growing expenses for Cole Mulholland’s care. To contribute,
go to www.gofundme.com/support-cole-mulholland
“We had a meeting and a lot of the guys from our Local 204 told
us they would help us with whatever we needed.”
He started with getting a small uniform patched up and sent
it to a very excited Cole. On the big day, a motorcade arrived
to pick him up, and he was paraded down the avenue with the
lights and sirens blaring.
“He and his mom were crying,” Powderly recalls. “Cole said,
‘this is the coolest thing ever!’”
But that was just the beginning. Once they reached City Hall,
a crowd of police officers, firefighters and local office workers
were there to greet him and cheer. Powderly presented Cole
with a special plaque, and Mayor Phil Guenther swore in the
beaming boy as a new officer.
“We gave him a gun belt and gave him a red dummy gun to
put in it,” Powderly laughs. “He felt like he was a police officer
then.”
Cole had a special interest in the K9 dogs, so Atlantic Coun-
ty’s K9 training school brought over half of its class and allowed
him to hold the dogs and learn how they are trained. The Local
wanted to pack everything possible into that day, so Cole also
participated in defensive tactics training, putting on full gear
and touring a SWAT truck. He patrolled the hallways of a local
school in his uniform and went on patrol along the beach in a
Hummer. Unbeknownst to Cole, Local 204 members even had
one of its own pose as a criminal in a simulated high-risk stop.
“We had our lights and sirens on and shouted out com-
mands,” Powderly says. “Cole got to cuff him and put him in
the police car.”
Powderly turned emotional when talking about driving Cole
home at the end of the busy day.