By Sarah Roebuck
Police1
CHELAN, Wash. — A school resource officer in Washington state came up with a unique way to honor all the “father figures” in her life on her wedding day, including a police officer.
Ivy Jurgensen, 28, was walked down the aisle by 15 men whom she credits with helping her get to where she is today, Good Morning America reports.
“They’ve played huge roles in my life, in protecting and providing for me when I didn’t ask them to,” Jurgensen told Good Morning America. “So for me to honor them and for everyone to see them and who they are to me was very special for me.”
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Among the group was Dave White, a school resource officer, who Jurgensen credits with helping to save her life as a child. Jurgensen said when she was a teenager, she confided in White about the abuse she experienced at home.
According to court records, Jurgensen’s father was convicted of rape of a child and child molestation. He was sentenced to prison.
Jurgensen said she was raised to “distrust” law enforcement, but getting to know White changed her life.
“I started to trust my school resource officer. I realized that he had a big heart, he loved his job, and he really did care about the students in his school and the community he served,” she told GMA. “That fostered friendship with my school resource officer was vital in starting to escape and find justice.”
Jurgensen said White inspired her to become a school resource officer herself.
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Jurgensen joined the East Wenatchee Police Department in 2021 after spending the first four years of her career with the Bothell Police Department, where she was named its top officer in 2020. She also worked as a spokesperson for Dawson Place Child Advocacy Center, a nonprofit organization that works with victims of child physical and sexual abuse.
The police department hasn’t had a school resource officer in more than a decade.
Jurgensen said each of the 15 men who walked her down the aisle made her feel that she was “never alone” during her difficult childhood.
Jurgensen explained that having White and the other men she chose to walk her down the aisle was not only a way to honor them, but also to have them present during the special moment she took the hand of her husband.