On September 26 TV celebrity Mike Rowe and his crew came to Webber Park to film an upcoming episode of his show Returning the Favor. Returning the Favor is a reality web television series that premiered on August 28, 2017 on Facebook Watch. It follows Mike Rowe as he travels across the United States in search of people who are giving back to their communities.
This time in September Rowe was surprising and honoring Officer Mike Kirchen from the Bike Cops for Kids for all the work he’s done connecting with kids. The Bike Cops for Kids program was started 10 years ago by Officer Mike Kirchen and Officer Mark Klukow. It has grown a lot since then, but through all these years, the one constant has been Mike Kirchen, known by kids all over Minneapolis as “Officer Mike.”
On this particular day Officer Mike thought there was just a film crew who wanted to follow him and a few other bicyclists as they took a short ride from the MPD Special Operations on 41st and Dupont to Webber Park as part of a story they were doing. Little did Officer Mike know that at each turn, more bicyclists would join the ride and that a very large group of people would be also be waiting for him at Webber Park, along with Mike Rowe.
Once Officer Mike made it to Webber Park he was informed that Mike Rowe was not only featuring him on his Returning the Favor show but that he had a few other surprises. Officer Mike was given 200 bikes and a check for $25,000 for the Bike Cops for Kids program!
Everyone in attendance was happy to see Officer Mike get this well-deserved recognition for all he does to build positive relationships between cops and kids.
Note: The video hasn’t aired as of this writing, but look for it at facebook.com/ReturningTheFavor/.