Helping Those In Need: Silver Shield Foundation Raises Over $100K

GREENWICH, CT — In 1982, George M. Steinbrenner III, who was then the principal owner of the New York Yankees, was attending the funeral of a police officer who was killed in the line of duty.

As an American flag was folded and handed to the officer's widow and four children, Steinbrenner wondered what would happen to the children when they grew up and it was time to attend college. How would they afford an education?

Steinbrenner turned to his friend, former Olympic bronze medalist James Fuchs, and the two decided something needed to be done to support families in similar situations.

Fuchs reached out to 100 people he knew and asked for $1,000 donations. Steinbrenner donated the proceeds from one Yankees game a year to get the foundation off the ground.

Now almost 40 years later, in the greater metropolitan area, the Silver Shield Foundation has helped 975 children and families of fallen police officers, firefighters, and EMS workers with tuition support.

Along with tuition assistance for undergrad or graduate school, the foundation offers tutoring services, college preparatory services, spousal education assistance and counseling. Children are covered until age 25.

On Saturday at the bucolic Tod's Point in Greenwich, the foundation held its second annual fundraising walk. Over $100,000 was raised, which will support and help increase scholarship funds the foundation gives out.

Representatives, officers and firefighters from agencies in the tri-state area attended the walk, including:

New York City Police Department Commissioner Dermot Shea, New York City Fire Department Assistant Deputy Chief Dean Koester, Connecticut State Police Commanding Officer Col. Stavros Mellekas, as well as local Greenwich Police Chief James Heavey, and Greenwich Fire Department Chief Joseph McHugh.

Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo and Selectperson Lauren Rabin were in attendance, as were several families who have been beneficiaries of the foundation.

K.C. Fuchs, a Greenwich resident and daughter of James Fuchs, runs the Silver Shield Foundation now after first getting involved in 2004. Her father died in 2010.

"The foundation is dear to my heart. I go to the funerals, and everytime it's heartbreaking what happens. To know you're doing something to help those families, it's rewarding everyday," Fuchs said. "My father always felt strongly about education, and that's what the children need."

Fuchs had the idea for the fundraising walk last year in order to show appreciation for first responders who have worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. The walk is the foundation's biggest fundraiser of the year; supporters also help raise money in the New York City marathon.

Chuck Scarborough, the lead news anchor for WNBC and a member of the foundation’s Board of Trustees, helped preside over the opening ceremony for the walk on Saturday.

The way the foundation operates is simple, Scarborough said.

"The grieving families don't have to do anything. There is no application to fill out, no request to be made," he said. "The Silver Shield Foundation automatically, the minute there's a death, puts the funds aside and notifies the family that we're there for them; they're now a part of our family, the Silver Shield family, and we will take care of them and help them through their college, or whatever their educational needs are."

The foundation always helped people under the radar, Fuchs said. Not many people knew Steinbrenner helped start it until his death in 2010.

But the work of the Silver Shield Foundation was amplified seven years ago, when NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were shot and killed in their police car in Brooklyn on Dec. 20, 2014.

The foundation immediately stepped-up and announced they would pay the tuition for Ramos' two young children.

On the night after the shooting, Liu's widow, Sanny, said she had a dream in which her late husband handed her a baby girl, according to an interview she did with CBS in 2017. The couple, who had only been married for three months, planned to have a family.

Sanny asked if it was possible to retrieve and preserve her husband's sperm — and it was.

In 2017, Sanny gave birth to her daughter, Angelina. The Silver Shield Foundation will pay for Angelina's college tuition when she gets older.

Both were in attendance at Saturday's walk in Greenwich.

"They're an amazing foundation," Sanny said. "When it happened, they were always there for me."

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said the pain for families never goes away, but groups like the Silver Shield Foundation can help people get through difficult times.

"The sad thing is, in our line of work you do have terrible tragic incidents that happen, and it's covered and it makes the news and we make the reports on it, but the truth is, that it lasts for decades and decades," Shea said. "It's organizations like Silver Shield that step-in and do what they can to try and ease the pain and make it right. You can never really fully, but it's heartwarming to see people who do care and do the right thing."

Carla Cacavale walked on Saturday with her four children in honor of fellow line of duty families. Her father, George, a NYPD Transit Detective, was shot and killed in 1976 when Carla was just 20 days old.

Carla's children wore sweatshirts with the name Vale embroidered on the chest — a nod to the NYPD K9 that was named in her father's honor.

"They're a tremendous support system. Not just financially, but in terms of just knowing they're always there," Carla said of the organization.

The Silver Shield Foundation had never done fundraisers in the past before the work of the organization was publicly known.

Steinbrenner had a saying, "If you do something good for some other person and more than two people know about it, then you didn't do it for the right reason."

Fuchs hopes the walk at Greenwich Point can become an annual tradition.

First Selectman Fred Camillo said the foundation is welcome back any time.

"We in town here both salute and support your mission," he told the crowd before the walk Saturday. "Your great works need to be supported. Please know that here in Greenwich you have a friend who will always, always welcome you here."

For more information on the Silver Shield Foundation or to donate, click here.