York Town News
Reserve officer’s French studies come in handy to help lost girl
By Melissa Wood
YORK - York Police Reserve Officer Wayne Clark's school French lessons were put to the test when a lost 10-year-old French-Canadian girl, who spoke no English, was found walking down Route 1 alone last Wednesday afternoon.
The girl had been with her parents at Ogunquit Beach where she got into an argument with them and stormed off, walking almost two miles to the York-Ogunquit line.
Dispatcher Patrick Moulton explained that around 4 p.m. on July 11 the York Police Department received a call that a young female was walking on Route 1 by Birch Knoll Cottages, but when Officer Chris Gosselin and a couple of women who had stopped to help asked her who she was and where to find her parents, they couldn't understand each other.
"He asked me if I could try to find an interpreter," said Moulton.
York Sgt. Martin Doherty suggested contacting the Biddeford police, but Clark, who is working as a reserve officer during the summer months, volunteered that he spoke French and could possibly help out.
Clark got on the phone with the scared girl, calming her down and finding out who she was and where she was from.
"She had no idea where she was," said Clark. "She didn't even know what town she was in."
An interpreter was found in Biddeford, but Clark stayed on the call since he had already established a rapport with the girl. Not long after, a call came in on the Ogunquit channel, said Moulton, that a lifeguard at the beach had reported a French-Canadian couple searching for their lost daughter, and parents and child were reunited.
Clark said he grew up in Augusta, which has a large French-Canadian population, and studied French from fourth grade through his senior year of high school.
"I read it and write it a lot better than I speak it, though," he said.
Doherty commended Clark for stepping in to help and Moulton for coordinating the efforts with the different police departments, finding an interpreter and quickly resolving the matter.
"They all did an excellent job," he said.
