Club Supports Law Enforcement for Police Week
During the month of May, Jax Beaches Republican Women's Club Federated showed our support for law enforcement throughout all of our Club programming. May 2nd started the month with a virtual meeting featuring Sheriff Michelle Cook to talk about Illegal Immigration, including the 287g program, being a woman in law enforcement and more. On May 16th, our second virtual meeting was with Debbie Johnson, founder of K9s United, to discuss the laws surrounding police K9s, her successful efforts to increase penalties for harming or killing a K9 in Florida, emergency transport of injured K9s and her latest effort to increase penalties for K9s and other working animals within the federal agencies. That morning, we joined the Jacksonville Young Republicans to deliver dozens of donuts to the Police Memorial Building in downtown Jacksonville. Our main member meeting on May 20th was a Law Enforcement Panel discussion with Sheriff TK Waters and the Police Chiefs for the three beach cities. It was a packed house and very much appreciated by law enforcement and our attendees alike!
Begninning in late April, we launched a campaign to get beaches residents to light up their porches in blue during National Police Week. Just as the President lit up the White House in blue, we wanted our law enforcement to see a beautiful and tangible showing of support for their service and sacrifice. Through social media, communication with our members and then word of mouth, hundreds of blue lightbulbs were lit each night throughout the community! We bought lightbulbs and offered them for $5 with hand delivery to their home. They arrived in a cute bag with a club flyer and a thin blue line flag. We encouraged them to post a picture on social media, attend our events and join the Club. Approximately half of our bulb sales were to non-members so it helped us connect with ladies who didn't know we existed. The proceeds from the project will be donated to a member's late husband, Officer Eddie Bounds' Scholarship Fund. Eddie was a pillar in our community and died in the line of duty.
Needless to say, this will be an annual project which will grow each year to show even more support for the lives and legacies of law enforcement officers in our community!