The Wounded Blue Christmas campaign is helping the holidays shine brighter for the families of injured police officers.
Randy Sutton, founder of the Wounded Blue, an organization working to improve the lives of injured and disabled law enforcement officers, joined Liz Collin Reports to discuss the effort.
The Wounded Blue
“The Wounded Blue is a national nonprofit that helps injured and disabled officers, whether those injuries are physical or emotional and psychological. We’ve helped more than 14,000 law enforcement officers in the last five years,” Sutton explained.
“Now, Christmas is a special time of year. It can also be a very stressful time of year and very often law enforcement officers who are physically injured in the line of duty, whether that injury is from a combat situation like a shooting or a car wreck, they face financial strain. So, our Christmas campaign is designed to make Christmas happy for law enforcement families that are struggling financially this year.”
The organization says 120,000 officers have been intentionally attacked in the line of duty in two years.
Recipients are kept confidential, but so far this year Sutton says his team is helping a family with an officer who just woke up from a long-term coma after being physically assaulted. Another police officer was struck by a vehicle and is facing a long road ahead, Sutton explained.
“They go off and right back to their base pay. So, they literally take a pay cut when they get injured and that causes severe financial strain for the family. That’s why it’s so important that an organization like the Wounded Blue exists, that we can step in and actually give gift cards worth $500 or more to make Christmas something special. Lots of people have come forward and said, ‘I want to adopt a family,’” Sutton said.
Guitars for Cops
The Wounded Blue has also partnered with country music stars to support cops year-round.
“Country music stars have really stepped up to the plate … I’ll throw a couple names that people will recognize—George Strait, Mark Chestnut, Tonya Tucker, Laurie Morgan, Martina McBride are just a few. There’s a whole list. If you go to guitarsforcops.com, you can see all the country stars that said I’m standing up for my law enforcement, I’m going to help them raise money and the Wounded Blue is utilizing these signed guitars. We’re going to be using all of the cash that comes in from this particular season to help on our Christmas campaign,” Sutton said.
“When my organization no longer needs to exist, that’s when I will be happy. That’s when I will know that we’ve been a success. We should not need to exist. But law enforcement officers, when they get injured in the line of duty, very often are literally thrown away by their police departments. Believe me when I tell you that many law enforcement officers face very severe struggles once they become injured.”
Trump ‘committed to helping law enforcement’
Sutton, who spoke at the Republican National Convention this year, believes Donald Trump’s return to the White House has put the country on the “precipice of a sea change.”
“I believe that with the election of Donald Trump, the people have spoken. They said, ‘We’ve had enough. We want our streets safe. We want this madness that’s been permeating and destroying our criminal justice system to end. We want our government to do what they’re supposed to do, and that is protect the people.’ I believe that Donald Trump, I know that he is sincere in this. I’ve met him personally. I had the great honor of talking about law enforcement at the Republican National Convention and I know that he is committed to helping law enforcement and has always been a true friend of the American police officer,” Sutton said.
Those who are interested in adopting an injured officer’s family this Christmas can email Enaql@gurjbhaqrqoyhr.bet
Liz Collin
Liz Collin has been a truth-teller for 20 years as a multi-Emmy-Award-winning reporter and anchor. Liz is a Worthington, Minnesota native who lives in the suburbs with her husband, son and loyal lab.
