I had an extraordinary experience this week participating in the Fall Ride 4 Fallen Officers to raise money for the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial to be dedicated on September 6
th. I missed the ride last year because of my now infamous Harley accident that resulted in a badly broken leg and six surgeries. I wasn't ready to ride a motorcycle yet, so to keep me "safe" I rode in a Utah National Guard Humvee. The turnout was double what was expected. Estimates are that over 2500 bikers contributed to the memorial by registering for the ride. Again this year John "Gov-1" Huntsman led the ride on his own Harley and a lot of police motor cops from around the state rode and provided
traffic control.
I took a lot of good-natured ribbing like "I think we have a Hog in the back with training wheels for you," and "wanna ride on the back of my bike" (that last one is considered "fighting words." To poke a little fun at myself and raise more money, we sold special autographed t-shirts that said "Attorney General Mark
Shurtleff Was Here" with tire tracks running across it. We also auctioned off my "crash helmet" from last year. It was a black "8-Ball" helmet and I autographed it next to the "road rash." I thought maybe we could raise a couple hundred, but some great charitable folks bid it up and ultimately Eric
Schanz bought it (and dinner with me at
Ruths Chris) for $1200! Thanks Eric!
We raised a lot of money and are very close to having the $1.3 million dollar memorial completely paid for. During my first two years in office, I attended eight funerals of police officers killed in the line of duty. The best and the brightest cut down in the prime of life because they kissed their wives and kids goodbye and went out to protect ant serve all of us. The memorial is to honor them and their families for giving the ultimate sacrifice and is also for all
Utahns who want to say thank you. For more information on the memorial, including information on all Utah officers killed in the line of duty, the dedication, or to make a contribution, please visit
http://www.utahsfallen.org/ and join us at the capitol on September 6
th at 10 am.
I had an extraordinary experience this week participating in the Fall Ride 4 Fallen Officers to raise money for the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial to be dedicated on September 6th. I missed the ride last year because of my now infamous Harley accident that resulted in a badly broken leg and six surgeries. I wasn't ready to ride a motorcycle yet, so to keep me "safe" I rode in a Utah National Guard Humvee. The turnout was double what was expected. Estimates are that over 2500 bikers contributed to the memorial by registering for the ride. Again this year John "Gov-1" Huntsman led the ride on his own Harley and a lot of police motor cops from around the state rode and provided traffic control.
I took a lot of good-natured ribbing like "I think we have a Hog in the back with training wheels for you," and "wanna ride on the back of my bike" (that last one is considered "fighting words." To poke a little fun at myself and raise more money, we sold special autographed t-shirts that said "Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Was Here" with tire tracks running across it. We also auctioned off my "crash helmet" from last year. It was a black "8-Ball" helmet and I autographed it next to the "road rash." I thought maybe we could raise a couple hundred, but some great charitable folks bid it up and ultimately Eric Schanz bought it (and dinner with me at Ruths Chris) for $1200! Thanks Eric!
We raised a lot of money and are very close to having the $1.3 million dollar memorial completely paid for. During my first two years in office, I attended eight funerals of police officers killed in the line of duty. The best and the brightest cut down in the prime of life because they kissed their wives and kids goodbye and went out to protect ant serve all of us. The memorial is to honor them and their families for giving the ultimate sacrifice and is also for all Utahns who want to say thank you. For more information on the memorial, including information on all Utah officers killed in the line of duty, the dedication, or to make a contribution, please visit http://www.utahsfallen.org/ and join us at the capitol on September 6th at 10 am.
No comments:
Post a Comment