Soup Ladies serve up warmth and energy at shooting scene in ElkPlain

By Marianne Lincoln

ELK PLAIN, WA

The news

Tuesday afternoon a Pierce County Sheriff’s Deputy was shot in the arm by a 27 year old man at the Garage Plus business in Elk Plain. This is located at 21607 Mountain Highway). The officer’s injury was not life threatening.

Deputies responded to reports of a man threatening people at the storage business. When officers confronted him, he opened fire. He then holed up in a storage unit as SWAT teams surrounded it.

He was later found dead inside the unit.

The rest of the story

As I was returning from updating the situation in Roy, my friends began texting me about this

Chaplain Ginger Passarelli seves up some hearty soup at the incident scene in Elk Plain — Chaplain Ginger Passarelli serves up some hearty soup at the incident scene in Elk Plain

shooting. So I drove toward Elk Plain’s Garage Plus business and pulled in long after the rush of major media. This is my old neighborhood, so I walked up to a group of officers and asked for the PIO (Public Information Officer) who apparently had already left. Then a friendly lady named Ginger offered me some hot cocoa cider and soup. On top of the hot water container was a box full of chocolate chip cookies. I introduced myself and the Gilligan’s Island jokes began as if we were meant to meet. State Patrol Chaplain Ginger Passarelli has a restaurant in Black Diamond called Mama Passarelli’s. The Soup Ladies is a group of volunteers that feed first responders. They are a 501(c)(3) non-profit (charitable).

This evening’s fare was a hearty meatball and sausage soup or an artichoke filled ravioli soup. Cookies, hot cocoa and hot cider complemented the provisions. Napkins, cups and plastic utensils were also available along with other useful supplies. The group has a special truck to take these provisions to trauma sites inside the blue line where officers have to spend long hours sorting out events.

Ginger and Sheila were assisting tonight, right after they had spent the day feeding officers at the Wilcox Mill in Roy. They will be back in Roy tomorrow as the work there is still in progress. The Soup Ladies have a Facebook page for their operation, you might want to like it and see how you might help them provide food warmth and energy to our officers answering the long hours in their call of duty.