By Joyce Hubler
Detective (ret.)
On Saturday, March 11, the Foundation of Retired Police Officers hosted the fundraiser picnic for the Phoenix Police Museum. For the fourth year in a row, our reunion picnic was a huge success — 2017 beat all previous picnic attendance numbers, with 328 signed-in members. This number does not include children, grandchildren or dogs. Many attendees came from out of state. Tom Yarborough, #2455, received a special museum coin and an Outback gift certificate for having traveled the farthest, from his home in Florida.
This year we raised almost $8,000, but that is not the final figure. Credit card sales from the merchandise table at the picnic and from the gun raffle ticket sales at the museum are not included in that figure. In addition, two beautiful gun donations came in a little late for the printing of the picnic tickets, and those are being raffled off July 4. Tickets are available for purchase at the Phoenix Police Museum (see flyer on page 19 for more info). Thank you to our gun donors who made this possible: Richard Twitchell, #513; Steve Proctor, #2054; Terry Kobza, #3041; and a special thanks to Dave Lane, #2918, who has donated a special gun for every one of the four years we have been hosting this picnic.
Many thanks to everyone who donated to our merchandise raffle. That alone brought in donations of over $3,000. Special thanks goes out to the volunteers who work so hard to put these picnics together: Nancy and Cave Golding, #2013, (raffle chairs); Fran Garcia, #2542; and Toni Bear, #5311. Thank you to Marcia Bueche Florian, #2877, and Connie Tyler for their outstanding photography and to Cleo Lewis for giving a moving invocation and being our raffle announcer. Additional thanks to Ed Catlett (membership sign-in), #2476, and his committee: Ruthie Cooper; Margaret Cassidy; Dudley Gibson, #942; Richard Twitchell, #513; Bob and Duffy Cropper; Diane Martin, #4378; Carol Campbell; Larry (#1439) and Carol Stubbs; Lisa Constein Schultz, #3725; and Jim Alberts, #3406. Beverage sales were hosted by Sherry Sparks and Jack Locarni, #2579.
Of course, the most special thanks of all goes to those of you who help support our efforts by attending, purchasing tickets and reaching out to one another. Our family in blue, thank you.
Our next Phoenix Police Reunion Picnic is scheduled for March 10, 2018. You do not have to be a retiree to attend. This will be our fifth annual picnic and promises to be the biggest and best ever.
