Council also approved the acceptance of several donations from the Evesham Township Police Foundation at the meeting.
This week’s Evesham Township Council Meeting featured a brief moment focused on the nation’s annual Police Unity Tour bike ride and the organizations that support the Evesham Township Police Department.
Each year members of law enforcement agencies across the nation and their supporters from the public take part in a four-day, 300-mile bike ride from Northern New Jersey to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness of law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty.
In addition, the ride also helps raise funds for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and Museum.
Sandy Student, an annual rider in the tour and a member of the Evesham Township Police Foundation, spoke about the ride and its purpose before the meeting’s audience.
“In Washington, D.C., there’s a memorial with 21,000 names on it — those are the men and women of their respective communities who died while they were serving their community,” Student said.
Student also used his time to honor the Evesham Celebrations Foundation with a plaque in recognition of the numerous charitable contributions the Celebrations Foundation has made over the years to the Police Unity Tour team.
In the past 10 years of Evesham’s local team riding in the Police Unity Tour, Student said the Evesham Celebrations Foundation has always made what he described as a generous contribution to the team and its fundraising efforts.
“It’s rare that community-based support is this generous,” Student said to Councilman Ken D’Andrea, who serves as chair of the Celebrations Foundation.
Chief of Police Christopher Chew, who was at the meeting to review the department’s 2017 annual report, also praised the support of community organizations and their support of the department.
Chew noted that in 2017, an anonymous resident donated $10,000 through Evesham Township Police Foundation to fund the purchase of a new police K-9 for the department.
Since 2015, the foundation has been able to provide financial and material aid for the department for initiatives or needs that may fall outside of the department’s annual budget.
Also during last week’s meeting, council once again accepted gifts from the foundation, including $2,472 for the purchase of four Aistriu police patrol bicycles and $3,000 for the purchase of two 770-watt Light Kits for use at roadside accident scenes, traffic scenes events and sobriety checkpoints.
Council also accepted a donation from the business MJCORP of two Evesham Township Police Department seal floor decals valued at $300.
To learn more about the Police Unity Tour, visit www.policeunitytour.com.
To learn more about the Evesham Township Police Foundation, visit the group’s page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Eveshamtownshippolicefoundation/.
