Foundation dedicated to helping families of fallen officers getting new space in Pinellas Park
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - A local charity that supports the families of fallen first responders in Florida will now be able to help even more people going through their darkest days.
The Police and Kids Foundation broke ground on a permanent home Monday along 102nd Avenue in Pinellas Park.
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"We've just run out of room," the charity’s founder, Tracey Schofield, said. "We’re going to be able to keep stock. So, we'll be able to buy diapers, buy car seats. So, when somebody calls and says they need clothes for a little one, we're going to be able to just go in the warehouse, pick it up and get it, or they can come here and pick it up," he said.
"Right now, I get a phone call, I have to drive to Walmart or Target and then do that. People want to give us things all the time. I have nowhere to put that, so now I don't have to turn that down. I can take those things and store them and use them when we need them," Schofield explained.
Schofield, who was a police officer for nearly three decades, started the charity in 2011.
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"It's by far the most traumatic thing that can happen to the family, the agency and the community that they serve. And what we try to do is we try to be an emergency quick response. We're not able to fix or replace the lost one's income. We can't do that, but we can give them immediate emergency needs financially so they can fly in relatives, put people in hotels. The things that you have to do that you didn't expect to do, that now have to be done," he said.
"We do that through the fallen officer plate for the state of Florida, and whatever money is left every year, we use it on the children of Tampa Bay," Schofield said.
The fallen officer license plate is $30 and $25 of that goes to support the Police and Kids Foundation.
Schofield said in addition to the large storage unit, the nonprofit’s new space will also include an office and a memorial garden.
"We hope to have a large tree house that we're negotiating with a builder right now to do, and that will be open to the public, probably on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday basis. And that'll allow people to come and reflect, relax. It'll be a private public type of memorial garden," he said.
According to Schofield, the project should be completed in about the next eight months.