Aftermath Presents 2018 Why We Serve Grants to Winning Officers

This week, we were honored to meet and present several of this year’s Why We Serve grants to the winners and their community organizations. We awarded 10 grants this year, so there are many more photos and handshakes to come. Watch for photos of your local heroes in the weeks to come!

First Place, First Stop, #1 Hero

Our first stop was to present the 1st place $5000 grant to Officer Chris Shelly of the Stroud Area Region PD and The Olsen Christmas Wish. The organization started out as a fundraiser to help support the young children of Ofc. Jeffrey J.J. Olsen, who was lost to suicide several years ago. After surpassing their original goal, the organization has used The Olsen Christmas Wish as a way to honor and support the families of fallen officers in the community. What began as helping one family has become giving over 40 kids a Christmas that they otherwise wouldn’t have had.

We are more than honored to award the $5,000 grant to Ofc. Shelly. The Grant has also had a ripple effect, drawing attention from local media and encouraging local businesses to step up and join in our cause. This year, several local businesses matched our grant to The Olsen Christmas Wish, bringing the group’s campaign total to $15,000!

More Hometown Heroes Bring Home Grants

We also had the pleasure of meeting Eric lemirand of the Wausau, Police Department of Wausau, WI. His $500 Grant is going to the Wausau-area community organization, Adaptive Community Inc. We also had the honor of presenting Officer Montgomery, K9Mackey and K9 Cherno of the West Windsor PD with a $1,000 Aftermath WhyWeServe Grant. We know that the grant will be put to good use serving the members of the West Windsor and Mercer County community. 

About Why We Serve

As the nation’s largest dedicated crime scene cleanup company, Aftermath routinely works alongside police and other first responders to provide high quality and compassionate trauma cleaning services to families and businesses. We established the Why We Serve Grant last year to proudly recognize the spirit of volunteerism embodied by our nation’s law enforcement and to acknowledge them for their ongoing efforts to serve, protect, and improve the communities in which we both serve.

This year, 16 officers were chosen to showcase their chosen charities from over 100 entries and even more nominations. During the 10-day voting period, people from across the country watched and voted for their favorite charitable cause on the Aftermath website and Instagram page. In total, the finalists collected over 55,000 votes.