Indy FOP Gives $5K to Youth Program
INDIANAPOLIS – The Fraternal Order of Police in Indy donated $5,000 on Thursday to Young Men Inc., a group that has spent 30 years running summer camps to teach children discipline and respect for their community and law enforcement. FOP President Rick Snyder said the group continues to make a real impact in the city.
At a press conference, Snyder said the organization played a key role in helping the community heal after IMPD Officer David Moore was shot and killed in January 2011.
“These young men and Reverend Walker came down and marched in that area, and then they held a formal memorial service where they placed a cross to honor the life and sacrifice of Officer Moore,” Snyder said.
Leaders say Young Men Inc. lost funding after the Indiana Department of Child Services made budget cuts earlier this year. Support they once counted on, such as grants and other funds, is no longer available. Snyder said it’s an honor to step in and help serve local kids.
He called on other organizations to get involved so programs like this one don’t disappear.
“There’s somebody in this city right now who can write a check and create an endowment for this program, so it never goes away—regardless of what happens to Reverend Walker,” he said.
Reverend Malachi Walker, a retired firefighter who lost his daughter to violence, says most of the kids in his summer camp program come from single-parent homes.
“90 percent of them are from single-parent homes where their mother or grandmother or maybe a dad is raising them by themselves,” he said. “Young Inc. is that lifeguard. I can never be a father to them, but I can be a father figure.”
Each year, the Indy Fraternal Order of Police gives hundreds of thousands of dollars to community groups like Young Men Inc.
