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Enforcers’ toy drive brings joy to families
n BY NICK SWEDBERG
Members of the Chicago En- forcers football team took time this holiday season to once again help a group of abused women and children.
For the last five years, the department’s football players have partnered with the Chica- go-based nonprofit House of the Good Shepherd to collect toys and distribute them to children at the shelter.
The 2016 toy drive was held
Dec. 11 at Murphy’s Bleachers
bar across from Wrigley Field. Po-
lice Chaplain Father Dan Brandt
said his sister had served on the
board of directors for House of
the Good Shepherd when the
team was looking for a charity to
support. The pairing is a great benefit to the children, and not just for the toys they get, but because “they don’t have examples of loving, caring men in their lives,” Brandt ex- plained.
“It really works out well for these big burly men. They
personally go and deliver these toys to the kids,” he said.
More than 200 toys were col- lected for the 39 families current- ly staying at House of the Good Shepherd, said Jason Slater, a member of the team’s board of di- rectors and linebacker.
Players and administration from the team played games and put together puzzles for the chil- dren when the toys were dropped off this year, Slater said. In years past, the players have helped the kids decorate cookies and thrown a pizza party.
The team also hosts a barbeque for the families at House of the Good Shepherd in the summers “just to let them know we’re still here,” Slater said.
Brandt said this “wonderful group of guys,” like all of the more than 50 recognized organizations in the CPD, need to have a charitable or community service slant to what they do. Partnering with House of the Good Shepherd fulfills that component, he
said. d
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