Page 34 - June2021

KEEPING CONTINUED FROM PAGE 33
“That’s the end game,” Catanzara added. “It’s a row of dom- inoes. That’s really the motivation, to try and improve these neighborhoods so our officers aren’t dealing with the same stuff over and over and over again. Is it a pie-in-the-sky dream? I guess we’ll see. But if you don’t take the step, you never move.”
Where there’s hope
Illinois State FOP President Chris Southwood accompanied Catanzara to the House of Hope gathering, and just a few min- utes into the meet-and-greet, the conversation turned to how to curb the surge of violence in their communities. One of the pastors told Southwood about a kid in his parish who had been shot over the weekend. He was angry and wanted to know why more action wasn’t being taken, especially by legislators, to do something.
Here was Exhibit A about why this meeting was needed and why the initiative is so urgent.
“Because none of us have an answer to any particular situ- ation of violence out in the street and people getting shot and killed,” Wilson submitted. “Enough talking has been done. Let’s now show the real deal and step up to the plate.”
Nobody puts his money where his mouth is more than Dr. Wilson. In 1997, he founded Omar Medical Supplies, which has become Omar, Inc. The company is 100 percent minority owned and named for Wilson’s son, Omar, who was shot and killed at the age of 20.
Ramo is so named as Omar spelled backward. Wilson’s invest- ment to seed the company goes beyond a financial stake. The investment of his time and his belief carries a lot of capital as well.
That helped draw the FOP to the opportunity. Initially, he had been telling Catanzara about a camp that had been started in
Lewiston, Illinois for kids from crime-ridden and impoverished areas to attend during the summer. In addition to getting away from negative influences, the kids would have opportunities to learn a trade and start on the path up and out.
The camp ran in 2018 and again in 2019 before being lost to
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