New charity helps police, fire EMS families

Some Lee County Sheriff’s Office employees are taking an extra step to help fellow public servants.

Ten members of the Sheriff’s Office recently launched the Blue Line Fund, a charity that raises money for the families of police, fire and EMS workers in the area.

While still in its infancy, the charity, spearheaded by Lee County jail corrections officer Bob Bramblet, has big plans and people with experience to help it achieve its goals.

Bramblet and Deputy Duane Simon, a fellow Blue Line Fund board member, have been involved several fundraising events with the Sheriff’s Office, including raising money for needy families around Christmas, and helping out an underprivileged basketball team in Immokalee.

Their smaller projects are what motivated them to do something larger and more consistent, Bramblet said.

The launch of a charity has been in the works for some time, but Bramblet’s efforts were delayed in a long, red tape-filled process of creating a nonprofit and tax-exempt group.

The name of the charity comes from the expression for the symbolic thin blue line in law enforcement that is said to separate humanity from chaos.

“The blue line actually ends up honoring those who fall. Because those who fall leave a gap in the line and the newcomers step up to fill that gap,” Bramblet said. “So it kind of honors both, the fallen and new people.”

With a public servant-geared mission, it was not too hard getting others to join the charity. Detention officer Jason Steinke said he was happy to join because he wanted to help his co-workers and thought the charity would be an excellent way to do that. As an officer, it’s natural to want to help, Steinke said.

The Sheriff’s Office has several employees who do charitable work, particularly helping people with drug and alcohol problems, said LCSO spokesman Sgt. Larry King.

“It’s just kind of the nature of our business where we have the tendency to get involved in a lot of community oriented programs, charity events and fundraisers.” King said

Steinke, a fishing enthusiast, is one of the deputies in charge of the charity’s first event — a fishing contest. The Blue Line Fund Inshore Fishing Classic will be held July 22 at Lovers Key State Park in Bonita Springs.

“There are so many of us who have so many different (interests),” Bramblet said. “There are two guys that like fishing. So when we wanted to raise money for the fund, they decided to come up with a fishing tournament. We’re just building on our strengths.”

Money from the tournament, which will be taped and televised on local Comcast channels, will go to two causes. The majority will go toward the Felix Romano Trust Fund. Romano, a sergeant in the Sheriff’s Office, died earlier this year in an off-duty accident on Interstate 75. Just hours earlier he was coaching the Sheriff’s Office’s football team in a charity game against local firefighters at Germain Arena.

Money raised from the fishing tournament also will go toward creating scholarships in honor of Cpl. Alfredo Banos, who died in a 2001 car accident while on duty.

Bramblet said he’d like eventually to see the charity give a handful of $1,000 scholarships to the children of local police, fire and EMS employees.

In the future, the group wants to start a fishing series to honor fallen Fort Myers Police officer Daniel Starks.

“We want to be able to have families of fallen officers, firefighters and EMS to be able to come to us if they have an idea of something they might want to do as far as raising funds in their family member’s name,” Bramblet said.

Additional information on the fishing tournament and the Blue Line Fund charity is available at www.bluelinefund.org.