Difference Maker: Officer Rio Burgess

By Mikayla Curtis: Director of Strategic Impact

When Officer Rio Burgess, with the Avon Police Department, enters Avon Elementary School, he’s greeted with smiles, enthusiasm, and a sense of connection with the students. Officer Burgess has a great spirit for community, possibilities, and seeing youth thrive. He shares, “kids in general are awesome, they’re bright and happy and come in full of energy and excitement; they want to solve problems and make a difference.” This is energy that fuels Officer Burgess in his role, it makes him feel like he wants to invest in youth and help them take things on and be successful in leading positive change. He has been a part of Avon

Police Department for a little more than the last three years and since that time has become a trusted member of the community, serving as a School Resource Officer (SRO) for Avon Elementary School. His service to community started long before that as a fire fighter. Officer Burgess saw an opportunity to bring his skills together and serve the community even more. Avon Police Department has a high standard for community policing, something that drew him to this particular agency. In his role as SRO, he gets to spend time at the school, build relationships, and serve as a trusted adult for youth and families in Avon. He takes pride in the opportunity to keep youth safe and maintain relationships with youth as they grow up, showing them he’s a reliable and safe person to count on.

               One of the special projects that Rio is most proud of is his leadership with the Shop with A Cop program for the Avon Police Department. The event, coordinated across local agencies and other first responder agencies, town departments, and partner agencies, is an opportunity for local youth to enhance their winter holidays with gifts for their family members. Work for the event begins in the fall, with Officer Burgess and other team members approaching local business and community leaders to support the effort and plan the event. The donations have been tremendous from the local community in the past two years, the program has almost doubled in the number of youth participating. This winter, over 150 youth across the valley were able to participate, with 45 youth participating from Avon. They are paired with one adult to shop at Walmart, ride in a bus with police escort to the Avon first station, wrap gifts (with help), eat dinner and get to visit with Santa. What makes the event even more special for Officer Burgess is the next morning, when he visits the school, and sees the ongoing excitement from youth who were able to participate. To Officer Burgess, this makes the whole effort worth it.

               This past year, Officer Burgess was approached by his Chief to get involved with Mountain Youth, wanting to have involvement with the organization’s efforts. Since then, he’s joined the Communities that Care Coalition, as well as supporting Mountain Youth education efforts, and has more recently joined the Youth Violence Prevention Steering Committee that is coordinated by YouthPower365. Officer Burgess appreciates being able to build relationships with community members and partners, and bring a law enforcement perspective to youth prevention efforts. Through his involvement, he feels that people are more willing to approach him, which is the part of policing that the enjoys – at a human level, he can be someone to talk through things with. Of areas that he sees that our community should focus on are the concerns around youth substance access and use, as well as screen time and overall health. He’s hoping he can work with the schools to bring in a curriculum that will prevent excessive screen time in elementary school. Officer Burgess also recently spoke at a Mountain Youth education event focused on creating more community awareness around the dangers of fentanyl, the importance of Narcan to save a life, and the importance of seeking resources and support.

               One thing Officer Burgess appreciates about this community is its spirit to be involved. He sees this with his department and officers supporting Special Olympics, facilitating the citizen’s academy and other community efforts, as well as across the community and an overall eagerness from folks to get involved. There are opportunities with the police department to volunteer and can vary based on interest and expertise, any person can contact the department to learn more. When asked what words of wisdom to share, Officer Burgess leave us with this: We live in a beautiful place with great community, let’s remember that in our day to day, step away from tech and think about how we’d interact face to face. There are areas we may have differences around but there’s a lot we have in common. Remember that we’re each other’s friends, neighbors, and community members and to cherish this and the place that we love.