WINDHAM County, Vt. — Meet Maple! That’s the name Vermonters have chosen after two rounds of voting for the newest K-9 on the Vermont State Police Bomb Squad. Maple is an explosives-sniffing female yellow Labrador retriever.
Maple’s handler is VSP Trooper Steven Gelder from the Rutland barracks. His current K-9, Nacoma, is retiring after Maple is ready to take over. She begins training this fall.
Her original name was Marjorie, but Gelder thought Vermonters could do better. Starting May 23, the Vermont State Police began taking suggestions on Facebook from the public for a new name for the new K-9. People could suggest any name they wanted by leaving a comment on the Facebook post, and then anyone could vote for their favorites by leaving a “like” or “love” reaction on the suggestion. The top four vote-getters as of June 1 advanced to a final round of balloting.
Of the hundreds of suggested names, the finalists were Maple (277 votes), Boomer (52 votes), Dynamite (43 votes) and Dani (29 votes).
For the weeklong final round, the state police posted four photos of the new pup — one with each suggested name — and people voted by liking or loving the image of with their favorite name.
When voting closed at 3:30 p.m. Friday, June 8, the results weren’t even close, according to a press release from VSP. Maple received 834 votes, compared with 420 for Boomer, 189 for Dani and 106 for Dynamite.
Taken together, the two Facebook posts received more than 1,100 comments and 2,400 likes, loves and other reactions. The VSP thanks everyone who participated.
The VSP also has a message for Maple: “Welcome aboard! Good girl!”
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