Page 2 - Volume 28 Number 2

VOlume 28, number 2 • SPring 2018
Big push underway for final
Michigan Law Enforcement
Officers Memorial donations
— By Jennifer Gomori, POJ Editor with excerpts from Lansing State Journal
the finish line is in sight for the Michigan Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Monument (MLEOM) to raise the needed funds to begin construction, but so is the end of a state matching grant which makes it possible. The MLEOM Commission needs your help to raise $320,000 by this fall to finalize fundraising and begin construction of the long-awaited Lansing monument.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, at least 47 Michigan Police law enforcement officers have died in the line of duty since the Michigan Law Enforce- ment Officers Memorial Fund (MLEOMF) began seeking donations for a monument in 2005. The monument will honor Michigan Law Enforcement Officers who died in the line of duty.
The big push to raise remaining funds is underway because the state legislature- approved matching grant is set to expire Oct. 1, 2018. That grant provides a 2-to-1 match up to $2 million total for funds donated.
If the Memorial Fund receives another $320,000 in donations by the deadline, com- bined with a 2017 $100,000 pledge from Delta Dental and the state’s match, that would bring the Commission to their $1.85 million fundraising goal, said MLEOM Commission Vice Chairperson Lin Emmert.
“All it’s lacking is somebody to get behind it and push it,” said Larry Julian, a former Michigan State Police Trooper in a Lansing State Journal article. Julian, a state repre- sentative, sponsored the 2004 bill creating the commission.” All of our Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders deserve it. I think there are people who will donate to it. I don’t think they know about it.”
John Szczubelek, who represents the Attorney General’s Office on the commission, said momentum should help them achieve their goal. Donors like to give when they “feel like their pebble is going to be one of the last dropped into the vase to put us over the mark,” he said in the State Journal article.
The MLEOMF had a more difficult start than some other state monuments because it didn’t receive any seed funding from the legislature. The commission waited a decade before the legislature approved the matching grant in 2014. “We’ve spent a lot of money on professional fundraisers, and the return on that has not been what we’ve hoped,” Szczubelek said in the article. He said the commission is competing with other law enforcement nonprofits and charities for funds.
The future Michigan law enforcement monument site was dedicated in 2006. Fun- draising has been up and down over the years, but with the $100,000 pledge from Delta Dental, 2017 was a record fundraising year for the effort. The MLEOMF is hoping 2018 is even more successful with the matching grant for donations, which are tax deductible.
Commissioners hope to break ground in 2019, Szczubelek said. d For more information, visit www.mleom.org
tO DONAtE to the Michigan Law Enforcement Officers Memorial by credit card, visit thepayplace.com/mi/dtmb/leo or call (517) 241-4083. Checks or money orders can be sent to Michigan Department of Technology, Manage- ment and Budget Financial Services, Cashiering Unit, Law Enforcement Me- morial, P.O. Box 30681 Lansing, Mich. 48909-8181.
Law Enforcement Education Program (LEEP©)
Send Address Changes to:
667 E. Big Beaver Road, Suite 205, Troy, MI 48083.
(248) 524-3200 • FAX: (248) 524-2752 www.leepusa.com
L.E.E.P. Programs: (833) 451-1220
POLC membership: www.polc.org
ExECutivE COmmittEE
CHAiR: Steve mcinchak
Gibraltar Police Dept.
viCE CHAiR: Brian mcNair
Chesterfield Township Police Dept.
Collin Birnie
Flint Police Dept.
Kyle Culbertson
Berrien County Sheriffs Dept.
mike DeKam
Grand Rapids Communications
Scott Eager
Battle Creek Police Dept.
Jennifer Flick
Jackson Police Dept.
Jeff Gormley
Bloomfield Hills Public Safety Dept.
John Huizdos
Bloomfield Township Police Dept.
DiRECtOR, Robert Figurski
Warren PD (Retired)
mEmBER SERviCES
Lloyd Whetstone
Postmaster: Please send returns and all other communications to the Law Enforcement Education Program Business Office: 667 E. Big Beaver Road, Suite 205, Troy, MI 48083.
Published by The Dale Corp., (248) 542-2400 Executive Editor, Gary Jablonski Production staff: Diané E. Bertoli, Jennifer Gomori