Custerites You Did It!
Fundraising Goal Met for
Deputies’ New Body Armor

by George Gramlich
It all started a couple of months ago when local realtor Josh Martin asked my friend and Sentinel Vice President Fred Hernandez to help with an idea he had. Due to a recent incident, Josh want-ed to do something nice for the Sheriff’s Office. Maybe buy them some equipment that they might need. So, Josh and Fred went to see Custer County Sheriff Shannon Byerly. The Sheriff said there was something they could help the Sheriff’s Office with: getting new, rifle rated body armor. He also mentioned that there is a charitable organization in Colorado Springs that specializes in helping local law enforcement agencies obtain rifle rated body armor. That organizations is SHIELD616.
The vast majority of law enforcement agencies only have the much less expensive, and less safe, pistol rated body armor. That is what our Custer County Sheriff’s Office Deputies currently have.
Fred decided to do some research. He talked to the SHIELD616 folks a few times and found out that they have been very successful in helping to provide the new body armor to dozens of law enforcement agencies in Colorado and neighboring states.
The new body armor is a very sophisticated light weight, multi-element plate system with one front and one rear plate hung in a lightweight chest rig. It is even made right here in Colorado. The cost per armor with a top-of-the-line helmet is $2,100 per deputy. Custer County has eleven sworn officers thus $23,100 was needed to cover all of our deputies. That’s a lot of money.
The importance of providing rifle rated armor can’t be emphasized enough. Virtually any center fire rifle bullet will penetrate a pistol rated plate. With crime getting more and more violent and with the increasing use of rifles in crimes it really is a necessity to have the new armor. The problem is, with a tight rural budget, it is tough to get the money to purchase the body armor.
Once we got the OK from Sheriff Byerly it was time to get the ball rolling. The Sentinel mobilized the local “usual suspects”, printed up a bunch of flyers, started placing a weekly ad in the Sentinel, front page, every week, put it up on social media and canvassed our Westcliffe and Silver Cliff businesses for donations. The
donations started coming in.
When we asked Sam Hepp, owner of Tony’s Mountain Pizza in Silver Cliff if he wanted to donate he said he would get back to us. And wow! Did he ever. He said he was willing to run a fundraising dinner at his place for the cause. It would be a steak, baked potato and salad deal for $25 and he would just take a small amount to cover some of his expenses. (Emphasis on the “small amount”.) We said we would
advertise the dinner in the Sentinel and social media for a couple of weeks.
The big question we were asking ourselves for weeks prior to the dinner was how many people should Sam and his crew prepare for. Sam finally decided on 200, which is a lot for a small community. The dinner was planned for Sunday, October 27th at 5 p.m. Sam shut his entire restaurant down for the event. Sam’s wife, Carol, and his daughter, Jill, went overboard prepping for the event and even set up a great multi-item silent
auction and a raffle. Even their grandchildren helped.
Before the fundraiser dinner, which was around week four into the effort, we had collected about $10,500 which was good, but we still had a long way to go. We had no clue how many people would come to the dinner and how much money would be made. We were kind of hoping to make about five thousand. Maybe. To say we were a little nervous around 4 p.m. that day would be a kind understatement. Sam, of course, was cool as a cucumber. He said to Fred and me, “Don’t worry.”
Sam knew what he was talking about. By 5:20 p.m. or so the ENTIRE restaurant was completely filled. Over 200 wonderful people occupied every chair in the place with some people waiting for a seat. Incredible. As things wound down around 6:30 p.m. people started to line up at the cashier paying for their dinner and making donations. Two outstanding local ladies made enormous donations. The line went on and on. I’ve never seen people so happy to give money.
Undersheriff Chris Barr and a bunch of our deputies were gracious enough to show up and thank everybody there.
When the “smoke” cleared, the SHIELD616 body armor fundraising dinner made a stunning $9,600 that evening! Unbelievable. Sam’s dinner was the push that put us close to the win line. Simply amazing. With a couple of more checks coming in that Monday we made and even exceeded our goal of $23,100. Any excess monies will reside in an escrow account at SHIELD616 for future purchases by the Sheriff’s Office.
We received a donation from a lady from Ireland and one from a couple from Kansas. Several local citizens made very, very generous donations. God Bless you folks. There were over 50 separate donations from private citizens and businesses. (Note that Tony’s Pizza gave us a single check for the night as most people paid with a credit card so the actual number of donors was much, much greater than 50.) We won’t mention the names of the individuals to protect their privacy. Thanks and God Bless to all of you. Several local businesses made very nice large donations: Norup Gas, Midwest ECM Repair and San Isabel Services Propane. Please thank these generous folks. Also, thanks to the wonderful Tony’s Mountain Pizza crew that worked that night. They were superb in serving all the people. Sam, Carol, and Jill: God Bless you guys.
And finally, thanks to our courageous and dedicated Custer County Sheriff’s Deputies for doing an excellent job in often challenging conditions. We hope this helps you out. God Bless.
Going forward, SHIELD616 will coordinate with our Sheriff’s Office for the armor company to come and measure our deputies for the rigs. These will be made and a final presentation of the armor will occur in a few months. We will keep you posted.
(Please feel free to donate if you haven’t done so yet. All the excess monies will be held in an escrow account by SHIELD616 to be used for future armor purchases, repairs and plate replacement. Make your checks payable to SHIELD616 and mail or drop them off at the Sentinel. Or you can donate online and designate “Custer County, Colorado” in comments.)