Ridgewood Police Officer Raises $5,000 In Memory Of Fallen Comrades

Ridgewood Police Patrolman John Ward Jr. is raising money to help fund a scholarship and the Special Olympics in honor of two Bergen County police officers who died.

Ward will be running in the Honolulu Marathon Dec. 13 in Hawaii. He is honoring the memory of Officers Christopher Goodell of Waldwick and Christopher Birch of the Midland Park Police Department by raising money in their names. Money will be donated to the Christopher Goodell Scholarship fund and to the Special Olympics New Jersey in Birch’s name.

Christopher Birch, a Wyckoff resident, was killed in an ATV accident July 6 when he failed to negotiate a left turn while driving an ATV too fast and crashed into a boulder.

Goodell was killed in a traffic accident on Route 17 in July 2014. Goodell had been a Waldwick patrolman for five years. He was killed while doing radar checks on Route 17 near Bergen Avenue when a tractor-trailer rear-ended his unmarked cruiser, which was parked on the shoulder. 

Ward has already reached his $5,000 fundraising goal and is still accepting donations on his GoFundMe.com page.

Ward ran in the New York City Marathon last year to raise funds for the Bone Marrow Registry.

”This time, I want to raise funds for two causes closer to home,” Ward said. “Like many others in Bergen County and beyond, I was moved by the outpouring of support for the families, fellow officers, and respective communities of Goodell and Birch.”