The Law Enforcement Benefit was created in 2007 as a onetime deal to send 3 Conrad High School students overseas to attend summer athletic programs for football and golf. It was decided that a game of flag football would be played between Law Enforcement and High School students from Conrad High School. A team of Conrad High School Alumni were also added to increase the attraction to the game. All
the monies raised were split up between the 3 students to send them to the summer athletic programs. I enjoyed myself so much and believed that what we were doing was something that could strengthen the relationship between Law Enforcement and High School age kids in the community, that in 2008, I formed the Cops 4 Kids organization. In 2008, it was decided that the monies raised by the game should go to the school rather than just individual people. The game again was played with a Law Enforcement team, a High School team, and this year instead of a Alumni team, an 8th Grade team was added, which included teachers. All the monies raised was given to the Conrad High School Athletic Programs. In 2009, we decided to expand our area of influence by adding Valier High School to the mix. The Valier and Conrad High School's each fielded a team against the Law Enforcement team. We also moved the venue to Valier this year, which was greatly appreciated by the Law Enforcement team as the Valier High School football field is a Class C field, considerably smaller than a Class B field. The two High School teams also played each other, which started up a great rivalry between the two schools. Conrad is a Class B school and Valier is a Class C school, so their sports programs do not interact much. We also started a small raffle at the games to raffle off a whipped cream pie to use on the lucky winner's favorite Law Enforcement officer. It turned out to raise more money than the proceeds from the gate tickets! All the monies raised were split between the Athletic Programs of each school. We continued this format of playing in Valier and giving the money to the High School Athletic Programs until 2011. In 2012, we decided that we needed to do something a little more specific for the kids to show them that we were doing something for them. It was decided that we would start a scholarship program from the money raised at the games. Unfortunately, the monies raised at the games was not much anymore. So we got together and decided to hold a raffle to help raise the money needed to make the scholarships worthwhile for the students. We spoke to a local business operator, Roger Erickson of Bullhead Sports in Conrad, and made a deal on a $500 gift certificate to their store. We planned to sell 100 tickets at $25.00 a piece to raise at least $2000.00 for the scholarship fund and repay the cost of purchasing the gift certificate. It was also decided that by doing the raffle, we would not have a gate charge for entry to the game. We ended up selling all 100 tickets and raised $2500.00 for our scholarship fund. We planned this year to give our 10 $100.00 scholarships to graduating seniors, setting up an application process. Unfortunately, we only had 3 of the 10 eligible applicants that remembered to apply for our scholarship. All 3 met the criteria set forth and were awarded the scholarships. We received a lot of feedback on our first try at a raffle. We were told that if we were to lessen the cost of the raffle tickets and get one from somewhere that offered more of a variety of items (Bullhead Sports only offers fi****ms for sale), we would have better interest. It was recommended that someplace like Scheel's in Great Falls would a good place to try. In March 2013, we decided to look into Scheel's in Great Falls to get our next gift certificate to raffle off. After meeting with Doug Hickey, store manager for Scheel's, it was determined that they could help us out with the gift certificate. It is currently planned to try and sell 300 raffle tickets at $10.00 a piece, 3 for $25.00, to raise the money needed for scholarships this year. The plan currently is to offer 5 scholarships at $250.00 a piece to help the graduating seniors remember to apply for them this year. In 2013, Cops 4 Kids merged with another local charity called Cops Vs. Kids, which held an annual basketball game to raise money for local schools. The first basketball game since the merger will be held March 18, 2014. We also started the Shop With A Cop Program in Pondera County in 2013, taking 10 lucky kids to Great Falls to buy clothing and toys for Christmas, escorted by volunteer Deputy's and Troopers. They also got to have lunch with our volunteers.
