BARRINGTON — Surprised Barrington Middle School students cheered as a star-spangled 2011 Ford Crown Victoria Barrington police car pulled around the corner with blue lights on and rolled up to the front of the school Wednesday, Jan. 3.

Adorned bumper to bumper in symbols of American patriotism such as stars and stripes, bald eagles and with the Pledge of Allegiance on the hood, the design was the culmination of a Servant Leadership Project by Elijah Obrey, 17, a member of Trail Life USA.

“Eli and his parents reached out to me to see if we had a responsibility project that would help Eli achieve the Freedom Award,” said Barrington Police Chief Bob Williams.

Trail Life USA is a faith-based outdoor adventure, leadership, and character development charter organization that was started in 2014. The Servant Leadership Project is one component in earning the Freedom Award, the organization’s top achievement.

The police department had done a graphic project with the middle school before and offered the idea for a collaboration between the Barrington Middle School eighth-grade class and the police department for a new graphics project on one of their cruisers.

“Eli worked with the police department, the middle school kids and the graphics designer. We then took Eli to the Board of Selectmen and to the School Board and got them on board,” Williams said.

Obrey went through the bureaucratic process to get it approved and fund-raised the $1,040 to cover the cost of the entire project with no cost to the town. “I had a passion to serve the police and I wanted to do a good thing for them”, Obrey said.

Barrington eighth graders submitted designs with the most common theme being the American Flag. “Out of 72 submissions, 43 had the American Flag, some had full body wraps like what we ended up going with,” said Williams.

Other concepts included symbols of school spirit such as the school’s mascot of a bulldog, home of the brave, and other patriotic slogans.

Mike Gregoire, owner of Sign and Design in Barrington, aided in conceptualizing the final design and performed the body wrap on the police cruiser. Powder coating was added by SPEC Powder Coating in Barrington .