By James Seneca, Aurora Police Dept.; Founder & President of CFC
Cops Fighting Cancer was originally started in December, 2002 by 2 officers and I was one of them. It was my philosophy that Christmas is not a good time for children to be in the hospital. We approached Children’s Hospital and organized a visit with the children at the hospital and patients numbered approximately 200, so I needed help to assist with this effort.There was the task of gathering small toys, stuffed animals, coloring books and crayons for the kids. The icing on the cake was having my good
9-year-old Gabriel Santisteven, wished to be a police officer & in November became an honorary Aurora Police Officer. Santisteven, a student at Side
Creek Elementary, has been fighting
brain and spinal cancer for 14 months.
friend Daren Bost dress up as Rudolph which definitely opened the doors for these kids. Originally the agencies involved included the Aurora Police Dept., Adams County Sheriffs Dept. and Jefferson County Sheriffs Dept. It has always been our belief and goal as officers was to really make these sick children happy for the day and wish them Merry Christmas and coming from a law enforcement officer would make it even more special.
We also wanted to lend our support to these families especially the parents with resources through Cops Fighting Cancer and bring awareness to the terrible disease of cancer. This year on 12/17/14 marks our 12the year and we are expecting about 35 different agencies from across the state and 250 officers gathered to spread some holiday cheer!
It’s been an amazing journey so far and if each agency goes back to their jurisdiction and further helps their community then we have accomplished our goal. Visiting with these children and their parents and the wonderful staff at the Colorado Children’s Hospital has been a huge blessing to all of us! Happy Holidays!