BETHEL — Andrew Lovejoy was 3, when he first met  Officer Trudeau at his school in Florida. That Halloween, he dressed like Trudeau and they took a photo together.

“Since then, (4 years ago) he has been obsessed with police officers. When he met a K-9 officer and his black German Shepherd, it was head over heels. He was going to be a K-9 officer and there was no changing his mind,” said his mother, Jill Lovejoy.

On Instagram, where Andrew has over 1600 followers, he is holding holding police patches and wearing t-shirts from many different police departments. His mother ‘follows’ police officers who in turn follow back, then send the patches and more.

Their COVID project was to see if they could get a patch from all 50 states. Currently they have 320 patches from as far away as Brazil, Canada and Germany. Andrew has received shirts, coins and sweatshirts, too.

When they moved to Bethel, they flew into New York. His mother told the Instagram world their travel plans and two Port Authority police officers met them at the airport to give him a shirt.

“It’s heartwarming. Police officers don’t get a good a good rap right now. That’s not fair for them…they love it,” said Lovejoy.

Wherever they go, Andrew hands out a card, similar to a business card, that says, “thank you for your service.”

Andrew, 7, and his sister, Emily, 10, go to Crescent Park School. They are hoping to get a dog of their own. For now Andrew sleeps with his stuffed dog, “Puppy”, wearing one of his many K-9 shirts.

Mike Fitzmorris, of the Oxford County sheriff’s office helps Andrew Lovejoy figure out which car is the unmarked vehicle of Andrew Whitney, of the Maine State Fire Marshall’s office. Both officers visited Lovejoy at Crescent Park School. Rose Lincoln, Bethel Citizen