ROME, NY (WUTR/WFXV/WPNY) — Members of the North Star Cheerleading Squad out of Rome were devastated when they found out the bottles and cans they had collected to raise money had been stolen, leaving them without money for their events.

Then, members of the Rome Police Department gave them something to cheer about.

According to Rome Police Benevolent Association president Jeff Buckley, in July, the squad had several bags of bottles and cans they had collected to raise money for their events stolen out of a shed.

“Obviously, it’s something within the community. It’s children, youth, so we took the report, did the investigation,” Buckley said, “It wasn’t coming back to much. Obviously, somebody cashed them in, probably right then and there within the next day.

“Officer Heinrich came back and said hey, this is what’s going on, this is a case that I had, is there anything we can do for them? So, we said, yeah, let’s do something for them.”

The idea was to give the team a donation was presented at a Rome Police Benevolent Association meeting by Rome Police Patrolman Matthew Heinrich. The next night, Heinrich walked in to meet the girls with a check from the PBA in hand.

“It took a little bit to get the money,” Heinrich said, “but they were very surprised when I walked in, me and another officer. They were very, very generous, they said thank you, to everybody at the police department. I don’t want to take full credit; this is definitely the PBA, the whole department. This is definitely giving back to the community.”

Thanks to the donation — along with many others — the squad has now collected over $700 from their bottle and can drive, which will help them with expenses and events.