Mattapoisett Police Give Check to Charity

The Mattapoisett Police Officer’s Association presented the proceeds from their annual Charity Golf Tournament to its recipient, Cops for Kids with Cancer, on December 9 during a noontime ceremony at the police station.

Cops for Kids with Cancer Chairman of the Board Robert Flaherty braved the wind and rain to travel from Braintree to Mattapoisett to accept the $2,000 donation that will go towards assisting the families of children battling cancer.

Flaherty said his colleague and friend John Dow, now a retired captain of the Boston Police Department, was diagnosed with cancer in 1980 and survived his battle. But the ordeal was distressing for Dow and his family so Dow, acknowledging the devastation his family experienced, tried to imagine what a family with a child diagnosed with cancer must have to go through.

That was when Dow approached Flaherty with the idea of raising money for the families of police officers with a child battling cancer.

The charity stems from its roots in camaraderie – and a little golf rivalry between Dow’s Boston Police team and the members of Garda Siochana of Ireland. They held the first charity golf tournament for Cops for Kids with Cancer, and donated the proceeds to children at Mercy Hospital. Year after year, more money was raised and more hospitals were included in the donations list.

Dow passed away in 2007 and left a legacy of giving – and golf – that has become a tradition for many.

“John’s dream was that every police officer who had a child with cancer would be taken care of,” said Flaherty. Eventually, with more funds available, the charity spread across New England and to other families with children battling cancer, not just necessarily those of police officers.

Now, a single family receives $5,000 from the organization, and it has donated $5,000 to a total of 330 families over the years. One hundred-percent of the proceeds go to the families.

“And everyone’s a volunteer,” said Flaherty. “Nobody [volunteering] gets a dime.”

Mattapoisett Police Chief Mary Lyons said this was the first charity golf tournament the Mattapoisett Police Officer’s Association has held in several years.

“We used to have it 15 years ago, but we stopped,” said Lyons. “The interest waned.”

Patrolmen Turner Ryan and Adalberto “Junior” Cardoso thought it would be fun to renew the golf tournament tradition and spearheaded the charity golf tournament effort, choosing Cops for Kids with Cancer as the beneficiary of the proceeds.

“We wanted an organization that kind of hit home for us,” said Ryan. They considered donating to St. Jude’s or the Jimmy Fund, but the Cops for Kids with Cancer practice of donating 100-percent of all proceeds to the families appealed to them.

Cardoso said he liked the idea of reestablishing the golf tournament and that “it would be a great time to raise money.”

Flaherty formally accepted the donation, along with the customary enormous novelty check written out to the organization in the amount of $2,000.

If you would like to make a donation to Cops for Kids with Cancer, you can write a check 
and send it to P.O. Box 850956,
Braintree, MA 02185, or visit the website www.copsforkidswithcancer.org.

By Jean Perry