Last week, Colorado’s hail storm left many with broken windshields. At that time, glassBYTEs.com™ wrote about how slammed the local auto glass repair shops were, but now the community is helping in a different way. The city of Fountain’s police department partnered with local businesses and churches to help those in need.
The police department started fundraising to help the city’s lower-income families.
“As our officers were driving around they noticed many people in our community who still have broken windshields. That’s when we knew we wanted to help,” said Lisa Schneider, Fountain police service administrator.
In the past, the police department has given back to the community through various events, but not one quite like this. It currently has a GoFundMe page in addition to its upcoming spaghetti dinner to be held at First United Methodist Church on June 30, 2018. “It’s imperative to have a connection with the community, especially in a time like this where police officers aren’t always being shown in the best light. Though we have many lower-income families that we serve and protect we think this is a way to continue to help them,” Schneider said.
One of the businesses partnered with the department’s fundraising efforts is Lighthouse Auto Glass. It’s going to fix the community’s damaged windshields. If a person were to call Lighthouse Auto Glass, he or she would be directed to contact the Fountain police department. This is because the company is still handling the high demand from its customers.
Though the fundraising has only been going on for a few days, many have already shown their support.
“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback so far and it’s been a mix of both positive and negative. And you’re always going to have negative feedback whenever you do something like this. We’ve heard things like ‘How am I going to help someone else get their car windshield fixed when I’m of low income myself.’ But fortunately our positive feedback outweighs the negative,” Schneider said.
Donations to help have been coming. Whether it’s been to use a church kitchen to help prepare food, selling tickets for the dinner or even food itself. “We’re a small agency and we’re a family; we want to help make our community part of our family too,” Schneider said.
