Seventeen-year-old Verde Valley School senior Elle Douglas was named the Sedona Police Department’s 2024 Cadet of the Year during a ceremony at the at the Sedona Elks Lodge on Dec. 15.

Sedona Police Department Awards
This is the second of a two-part series on the 2024 Sedona Police Department Awards. The first story highlighted Sedona Police Officer of the Year Shayla Jones and other sworn officers.

SPD Deputy Chief Chris Dowell said that Douglas, who was promoted to cadet corporal in 2023, has played a major role in the program, helping recruit four members over the past two years in spite of splitting her time between Sedona and Naperville, Ill., where she is also a member of that city’s cadet program.

“Any recognition feels good,” Douglas said. “It’s nice to think you’ve made an impact in the community, especially because I won’t live here next year. So it’s nice to know that I came and I made an impact on the community, hopefully for the better that will outlive my time living here.”

Douglas enrolled at VVS in her sophomore year in 2022 and plans to enroll at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in the spring; she has not chosen a major but said she is interested in becoming a prosecutor or an FBI agent.

“Elle is an exceptional person who has positively impacted everyone she encounters,” VVS Director of Enrollment Management John Gordon said. “Her kindness transcends social boundaries, as she effortlessly connects with both peers and adults across different groups. Since arriving on the VVS campus, she has fully embraced every opportunity, actively participating in her education and a wide range of extracurricular activities. She often encourages others to get involved, including her work with the cadets program.”

Douglas also played center midfield for two of VVS’ soccer teams, was active in the school’s chess club and played point guard for the VVS girls’ baseball team before being sidelined with an injury.

“[Douglas] has taken on the role of being the leader of the group and keeping everybody in line,” Lucas said. “She is highly motivated, definitely wants to make a difference and one of the most committed people I’ve ever seen since she is part of two programs.”

“I’m incredibly proud of Elle, as she’s always been a young girl, and now a young woman, who goes after what she wants,” her mother Kelly Douglas said. “She’s unafraid to seek and find new passions that are uncommon. She then excels at them, such as being named the Cadet of the Year, and then she shares her love for cadets with her classmates and successfully recruited new members so that they too could experience the amazing opportunity.”

Volunteer of the Year

Lance Waldrop, a Navy veteran and former U.S. Department of Defense auto mechanic, was named the Volunteer of the Year for repairing vehicles and providing oversight. Waldrop is also a Sedona Fire District Governing Board member.

“If you want to volunteer, we will find something for you to do,” Dowell said. “Lance is a great example of that. He’s a mechanic. He has all the certifications, and he wants to work on cars. We let him work on cars. Some people want to go do house watches. We have people in here who do data entry. We have some that work the front desk. I don’t want to say we have a specific need because we have a need for anything that [volunteers] are willing to.”

Waldrop also examines vehicle repair quotes and has saved the city “thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars,” Dowel said.

“You start to feel better about yourself and I began to see Sedona as my permanent home, not just a place that I was going to live the rest of my life, and volunteering with [SPD] has done that [and] so much more for me,” Waldrop said.

Those interested in volunteering with SPD can call (928) 228-3100 or visit sedonaaz.gov.

Meritorious Service Award

Ray Schwartz began volunteering with SPD in November 2008 and received a Meritorious Service Award after retiring with 5,300 hours of service.

“[Schwartz] is kindhearted, knowledgeable and loves to share a laugh with everyone he meets,” the city of Sedona stated in a Jan. 19 Facebook post. “He makes others around him feel at ease. For those council members that have stopped in at the visitor’s center, you may have seen Ray sharing his vast knowledge of the red rocks with the visitors … To say that Ray will be missed at the city is a huge understatement. We wish him congratulations on his retirement and wish him nothing but the best.”

Darrel Earnshaw was presented with a silver star for 549 hours of service and Ron Siddoway was given a gold star for 1,163 hours of service.

A moment of silence was held for department volunteers who died in 2024, including Ron Minzer, Mark Zimmerman and Mike Ward, who was also a former Sedona city councilman.