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Foundation
That’s solid gold, which defines the way the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation has been giving to Chicago Police Officers and their families to provide for safety, education and honoring the blue brotherhood.
n MITCHELL KRUGEL
Names radiate for miles and miles, years and years, gen- erations and generations. Names of the Chicago Police Officers killed in the line of duty fill the wall at the Gold Star Memorial just south of Soldier Field, and they lure the attention of runners, cyclists, couples out for a stroll, tour- ists and even fans on their way to a Bears game.
The finest police memorial in the country, which the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation built in 2007, cat- alogs 575 names on its memorial wall, but the list of the ways the Foundation helps the families behind those names is twice as long. Maybe longer.
One of the names on that wall is Paul Winston Nauden, whose End of Watch came on May 20, 2011. He left behind two young daughters. Avril and Alana Nauden are now full on into the education Paul and his wife, April, always planned for them, and that is now made possible by one of the hundred or so ways the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation (CPMF) gives to Chicago Police families.
“When my husband was alive, he worked a part-time job on his days off so we could prepare for our children’s education and future,” April confided. “And now the Foun- dation is helping us live out that dream.”
Art Hannus, Chair of the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation Board, confirms that the kids who benefit
make him want to extend a group hug to all the Gold Star Families, as the ones who have lost an officer and a loved one are known. And he wants that hug to wrap around the entire city’s police force.
To do so, CPMF Executive Director and retired Depart- ment Superintendent Phil Cline figured this holiday sea- son would be a perfect time to accentuate giving to the police. Following a meeting at Lodge 7 a few months ago, Cline was talking to some members who wanted to know more about how the Foundation supports cops, how it changes lives of families of fallen officers, how it continues the tradition of loyalty and generosity of Chicago Police and how it focuses on the needs of the men and women of the Department and their families.
“We’re honored to step up and tell those families that their officers were heroes,” Cline inspires. “A day doesn’t go by when we don’t get a note or a phone call thanking us, and we remind them that the thanks goes to the cops on the street.”
Perhaps to honor those cops on the street, the Founda- tion can offer the one gift this holiday season that all offi- cers want: the peace of mind in knowing that if they don’t get home safe after this next tour, then their families will be looked after. Thus, if you are so moved, stuff this in your family’s stocking: the 12 ways of giving from the CPMF...
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