T his fall, Folds of Honor, a foundation that awards scholarships to the spouses and children of fallen or disabled U.S. military members, announced the addition of first responders, including law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMTs and paramedics, to its mission.
This article appeared in the November/December issue of OFFICER Magazine. Click Here to view the digital edition. Click Here to subscribe to OFFICER Magazine.
Capt. Luke Sherman (Ret.), Senior Vice President— Outreach for Folds of Honor, recently spoke to OFFICER Magazine about how public safety became a focus for the organization and how supporting the education of the families of fallen or disabled first responders helps honor their legacy.
Sherman, who retired from the Tulsa Police Department in March after more than 29 years on the force, had a prior connection to Folds of Honor Founder and CEO Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rooney. He says the two, along with the foundation’s Chief Impact Officer, Ben Leslie, spoke about the idea of adding first responders to the applicant pool as early as 2014. Folds of Honor wanted to find the right timing to launch the new initiative and Sherman joined the organization in April following his retirement to represent the organization on the first responder side.
Creating the program
Folds of Honor was created in 2007 and has awarded nearly 44,000 scholarships totaling nearly $200 million. With more than 15 years of outreach to the military, the foundation is now recognized nationwide as a resource for military families. As Folds of Honor prepares to accept applications for the first round of scholarships for the first responders program this coming spring, Sherman says that a lot of resources have been put behind promoting the program in order to raise awareness among the public safety community.
“We defined what the message was going to be,” he says. “We looked at the numbers and presented that message in a packaged form through marketing, layering that to the mission.”
There are currently over 2 million first responders in the U.S., made up of roughly 800,000 law enforcement officers, 1,062,800 firefighters and 241,000 full-time EMTs and paramedics. “The mission really is to fill the same obligations (as the military program) for those sacrifices that those first responders are making,” says Sherman, adding that the frequency rate in call volume is much higher than it is for military members. First responders are sent out to approximately 240 million calls each year, which is about 660,000 calls per day. “First responders are moving, they are moving at a high rate of speed, they are doing a remarkable job across this country keeping us safe here, but there are times where those situations turn into tragedy. At the receiving end of that are sometimes police officers, firefighters and medical personnel.”
Supporting families
Sherman says that the mission of the new program is to honor the sacrifice by educating the legacy of our first responders in the same capacity Folds of Honor has done for the military over the years. The scholarships support private school tuition, tutoring in grades K-12, as well as post-secondary tuition.
Sherman says he recently spoke to a widow who works as a schoolteacher and was considering going back to get her master’s degree to help better her family’s financial situation since she had lost her husband. “We’re helping fill that gap. You really can’t fill the gap of a tragedy, but what you can do is try to identify the needs and this is how we do it.”
Families of first responders who are killed in the line of duty are eligible to apply for the scholarships, but so are those whose loved ones have died while off duty. “We’re honoring them as first responders. We’re not looking at the actual tragedy itself as much as simply the fact that that person, man or woman, is a first responder,” he says. “What can we do to carry the legacy of that individual? That is to honor them through their spouses and their kiddos through those scholarship options provided to them.”
He says that he has spoken to families that worried they wouldn’t be eligible to apply because their loved one died from an medical event or illness while off duty and were pleased to learn that they were in fact eligible. “This is a zero-judgement zone for us,” he says. “If you are a first responder and you’ve got the credentials and you are backed by a city and agency, we don’t care what the tragedy is or how it happened. We care about you as a first responder and your family.”
Families of first responders who are “catastrophically injured” in the line of duty also qualify for the scholarship program. An example would be a firefighter who suffers multiple third-degree burns or a police officer severely injured in a wreck. Any family of a first responder who is no longer able to perform their job due to an injury qualifies to be considered for scholarship funds.
Spreading the word
The application window will be open between February 1 and March 31 next year and Sherman hopes that before then enough first responders are made aware of the new scholarship program. He and his team have reached out to both the IAFF and FOP, attended industry conferences and annual memorial services and forged relationships with organizations such as COPS (Concerns of Police Survivors).
“Those groups are strong enough to say, ‘Here is another resource for our first responder families,’ ” says Sherman. Getting those organizations to understand what the new scholarship is and how applicants can apply has been critical in the group’s messaging and will ultimately determine how successful the program is from the start.
Sherman says that part of getting the word out has also been fundraising. Donors and companies have been approached to contribute to the new program, but he noted that anyone can help support Folds of Honor by becoming a Squadron member with a pledge of $13 each month or explore other donation opportunities at foldsofhonor.org.
“We’re just trying to push out the message that the spring is when the application period is, and to get a big group such as first responders to understand that,” he says. “The military group understands that because it’s been ingrained in them for a while. The system and the annual timelines and requirements. We’ve really been working hard to get the message out.”
While the public may still consider Folds of Honor a military charity, Sherman says that will eventually change, but that the purpose and mission will stay the same. “We want to take care of American heroes and their families to the best of our ability,” he says. “We are honored to carry this mission. It’s an unbelievable mission and I’m happy to be a part of it.”
More information on the Folds of Honor program can be found online at https://foldsofhonor.org/scholarships/
This article appeared in the November/December issue of OFFICER Magazine.
