Page 59 - FOP June 2019 Magazine

Chicago Police Memorial Foundation campaigns for shining support
In the month of May, Chicago Police Department officers didn’t need to look further than the restaurants and businesses in their neighborhoods to find out how much their city supports them. That’s because starting on May 10, the walls of Chicago business- es began to fill with blue, silver and gold stars as a result of the Paint the Town Blue campaign run by the Chicago Police Memo- rial Foundation.
The Paint the Town Blue movement began one year ago, when members of the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation discovered a box filled with metallic stars in the back of an office closet. De- velopment and Communications Officer Bridget Schuda knew that the stars shouldn’t go unused. Instead, the CPMF team brain- stormed to come up with an easy and effective way to make the stars shine in a campaign to raise money for the Gold Star Fami- lies children’s education program.
“The stars seemed like they were going to waste just sitting in the closet,” Schuda recalled. “We wanted to give restaurants and bars an opportunity to continue support us in an easy way.”
The stars have since spread across the city of Chicago in a cam- paign that allows patrons at local participating businesses to pur- chase blue ($1), silver ($5) and gold ($20) level stars that are put on display at the establishment. This year, nearly 100 businesses helped Paint the Town Blue across Chicago for the duration of Po- lice Week, which began on May 10 and concluded on May 20.
“These are establishments that police officers visit on a daily or weekly basis,” Schuda explained. “It shows the CPD that their communities have their back.”
The galaxy of support that formed on business windows, walls and bulletin boards sent a simple yet powerful message to law enforcement. But the money raised from the cam- paign contributes to an even bigger picture for Gold Star Family children, as the CPMF vows to cover education ex- penses for every child within the program from kindergar- ten to graduate school. There are currently 29 kids in the CPMF education program.
“We can never replace their
family member, but we try to
give them the life that that par-
ent would have wanted them
to have,” Schuda said. “We
don’t put a stipulation on any
school, either. Because if their
parent were here, they would do whatever they could to make it happen.”
This year, the Paint the Town Blue campaign more than tri- pled the outcome of last year’s fundraiser, bringing in more than $40,000 for the cause.
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