BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- Each month, “WBZ Cares” highlights a worthy non-profit organization and tells the story of what that organization does for the community. This month WBZ is profiling Cops for Kids with Cancer, where police across Massachusetts raise money to help families with a child battling cancer.
It's a charity with a simple concept. Police across Massachusetts raise money then hand it out to families with a child battling cancer to help ease a bit of the financial burden.
Mass state police lieutenant Bill Coulter is the charity's board chairman, “And they're really in trouble. I'm not intimidated with trouble. I just get into how I can make it better”.
Right now they help 96 families a year, giving each $5,000 dollars. But Coulter says he hopes to raise more money to help even more families.
“Some days I might go and visit two families or something, say UMass Worcester, cancer families, and give them donations, and they’ll have it all scheduled that in an hour and a half I'll be in Peabody. It’s all lined up for the family and the police department. And then I’ll go from there, I might go to Boston for a 7-o’clock at night one and like I say when I go home at that night, that’s the best day of my life. I actually get in to see several families and those are great days when that happens,” said Coulter.
Cops for Kids with Cancer reached out to Amy Gonzalez’s family in 2016.
“When your daughter’s in treatment and you’re going through so much, and so many things are coming at you, you’re just trying to survive each day,” Gonzalez commented.
Her daughter Kelly, 11 years old at the time, was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor.
“My daughter was in radiation treatment for 6 weeks, 5 days a week. I took a leave from my job for that year, so the money was extremely helpful with paying bills and supporting us through the time that we were in treatment,” Gonzalez said.
For the Gonzalez’s, the $5,000 helped with bills. For other families, it could mean a much-needed vacation. They’re told to spend it any way they wish.
“It’s not strictly bills. No payback and we tell them very specifically we're not going to call them back. We're not going to call them up and say, ‘Hey, what did you do with that money?'” Coulter concluded.
WBZ NewsRadio1030's Shari Small Reports