Twilight friends show support for police with custom sign

By TAYLOR BROWN
tbrown@yourmvi.com

Four friends in Twilight waited nearly a year to deliver a handmade sign to Charleroi Regional Police officers.
Residents John Otto, Dave Jones, Joe Smith and Greg Doerfler have been friends for most of their lives.
More than a decade ago, after their children got older and they became more established in their respective careers, they started to get together at Otto’s garage to work on various projects, from signs, to cornhole boards to restoring old cars — a pastime they had when they were in high school.
“We have developed a reputation, it kind of started as a joke, but people call us Twilight Customs,” he said. “Three of us have full-time jobs and the other is retired, so this is a hobby for all of us. We are in the shop almost every day working on something.”
Last year, after the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a screeching halt and protests and riots surrounding police brutality broke out over the country, the men decided to make their next project an important one: showing support to the men and women in blue.
“The four of us work on all kinds of things,” Otto said. “Then, last June, Dave came over and told us about this saying that he saw and it described how we felt perfectly. So, we thought we would spend some time to make it and show them that even though times are tough for them, they have people who care about them.”
The plaque is made of wood, a decal with the chosen saying and a thin blue line across the bottom.
It took about four days to finish.
“We have had it for almost a year, but when COVID hit everything went virtual and it was important to us to give this to them in person,” Otto said. “We could have dropped it off sometime in the last year, but we wanted to present it the right way to show them what they mean to us.”
At a police board meeting last week, the four men attended the meeting to present it to the officers and the board.
“The board was very receptive,” Otto said. “They were very happy and thankful for our work, but we did it to show the officers how thankful we are for them. The four of us have always supported our police, and the saying evokes something we have all done over the years for our local police force.
“We wanted to make sure they knew that while not everyone supports them, they have four extended families in the area that will always be here for them.”
In-between smaller projects, the four men are in the process of restoring a 1964 Ford pick-up truck they have been working on for the past four years.
“We don’t really advertise for ourselves, because this really is a hobby for us and there wouldn’t be enough time in the day,” Otto said. “We really are just four guys, working in a garage for fun.”