Page 37 - January 2020 FOP Magazine

Honoring the deployed
Families of deployed Chicago Police Officers whose children received gifts as part of Operation Santa 2019 included:
Officer Michael A. Malkowski, recruit training unit: Currently stationed in Saudi Arabia.
Lieutenant James Labbe, Seventh District: Currently stationed in El Paso, Texas, with Coast Guard Border Patrol.
Officer George Artiga, 10th District: Currently stationed in Iraq.
Officer Kyle Gleeson, SWAT: Currently stationed in Afghanistan.
Officer James Kotowski, 10th District
Officer Omar Vasquez, Seventh District: Currently stationed in Afghanistan with Special Forces.
Officer Michael Kelly, Mounted Unit 55: Currently stationed in Afghanistan, serving in the same battalion as his son Alec.
Officer Joseph Cistaro, assigned to CPD – Airport South: Cur- rently stationed in Iraq.
The family of Michael Kelly — his wife, Alaina (right), and children Abigail, Liam, Ava and Raquel.
four children at home — and another son, Alec, also deployed to Afghanistan. The invitation to Operation Santa was an excit- ing surprise for the family.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing [CPMF] is doing for us,” Alaina Kelly said, acknowledging that she didn’t tell the kids exact- ly what was happening when they made their way to 008 on the morning of Dec. 15. “I never told them because they would
bother me every day: ‘When are we going?’ I just said, ‘We’re going to see Santa.’ And then they walked in and were really, very excited.”
Michael Malkowski was a recruit in the academy when he got the call for his deployment to Saudi Arabia. His wife, Myra, son Anthony and daughters Judith and Danielle clearly miss him but felt grateful to be recognized as part of Operation San- ta.
“They’re sad, but they’re happy being around these kinds of people,” Myra Malkowski explained. “[It’s] kind of like being around Daddy.”
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CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JANUARY 2020 37