By Greg Hardesty / Behind the Badge OCSD

Originally published in Behind the Badge.

The rumbling of the helicopter blades slicing through the morning air reverberated throughout the classroom.

“We’re not under attack,” Sheriff Don Barnes assured the three-dozen high school students. “That’s a helicopter coming to see you.”

Indeed, the helicopter was one of several cool things students from two Garden Grove high schools recently were exposed to in a first-ever collaboration between Orange County United Way and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

The event, held at the OCSD Regional Training Facility in Tustin, was part of the United Way’s Youth Career Connections Program, which educates juniors and seniors about the huge variety of career options at the OCSD.

United Way has partnered with more than 30 businesses and organizations for its Youth Career Connections Program, now in its third year. But the four-hour-long session on Feb. 4 at the OCSD Regional Training Facility in Tustin marked the first time United Way has partnered with the OCSD on its career program.

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