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Thursday, 30 October 2008 |
One Hundred Club quietly helps when tragedy strikes police, fireBy Karl Fischer
West County Times
Article Launched: 10/25/2008 07:34:32 PM PDT
Kyle Haynes heard her 15-month-old bouncing in the crib that morning, when David usually got home.
"Daddy! Daddy!" Phillip called as Kyle walked to the door.
None of the Richmond police officers on the porch was David Haynes. But the sight of them, all somber in their blues, excited 4-year-old Morgan: "My daddy is a policeman too!"
Little more needed saying. Kyle saw their eyes.
"Unless you've been through it, you can't know what it's like," Kyle said last week. "You never forget. The pain never goes away."
David Haynes died that morning, Dec. 28, 1992, with Officer Leonard Garcia. They were trying to rescue a woman held hostage by her estranged husband.
The job left them cold in the street. It left Kyle Haynes bereft of loving husband, her children without a father. But it didn't leave her alone. For that, she thanks the One Hundred Club of Contra Costa County.
"The next day, these two strangers came to my door with a check. They did it very quickly and they asked for no thanks. They just said they were sorry, and they were gone," said Haynes, who became the Contra Costa club's first beneficiary in 1992. "I was so appreciative."
They were not gone for good, Haynes learned as months and years passed. Savings bonds arrived for the kids the following holiday season, and each thereafter, and when she chose to get involved, she found a community of supportive people awaiting her, including some who shared her experience as a law enforcement widow.
The local nonprofit, one of many autonomous One Hundred Clubs around the country, formed in 1984 to supply quiet financial assistance and emotional support to the grieving families of local police and firefighters who die in the line of duty.
Strangers with a check came to Susan Moody's door after her husband, Richmond police Officer Bradley Moody, succumbed to his injuries from an Oct. 5 crash in his patrol car.
They arrived like clockwork the month before, when Martinez police Sgt. Paul Starzyk died in a shoot-out with a man who also killed his estranged wife's cousin.
And they were there last year, when Richmond Deputy Fire Marshal Ron Wiley died in a crash on the Carquinez Bridge, and when the Contra Costa Fire District's Matt Burton and Scott Desmond died trying to rescue an elderly couple from a burning home in Montalvin Manor.
"I won't donate to any nonprofit except the One Hundred Club," said Pittsburg police Chief Aaron Baker, who first learned what comfort the club provides grieving families in 2003, when a homicide suspect gunned down Inspector Ray Giacomelli, then again in 2005, when a robbery suspect ambushed and killed his pursuer, Officer Larry Lasater.
"I had probably heard about it before in passing. Police chiefs get invited to participate in a lot of things, as a matter of course," Baker said. "When Ray got killed, the president called me up and said they wanted to give the family a check, and could I arrange a meeting? To be honest, my first reaction was, 'Get off my phone.' There was no way I was going to let these strangers anywhere near" Giacomelli's family.
But after checking into the group, Baker learned what a few other local chiefs already knew from unfortunate experience: no fraud involved. The club typically gives $15,000 to the family, and tries to do it as quickly and quietly as possible after the tragedy.
"The pain does not go away. You just learn to live with it," Haynes said. "You have to be strong. The hardship goes on and on. The death itself is only the beginning."
The One Hundred Club also provides college scholarships for children of its benefactors. The name comes from the membership fee, President Don Theile said: $100 for an annual membership, which buys a newsletter and invitations to an annual barbecue and dinner, or $1,000 for a lifetime membership. Anyone can join.
"We depend on memberships to keep going," Theile said. "The trouble is, we're so quiet about what we do that a lot of people don't know we exist."
Reach Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728 or
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How to help
Anyone who wishes to join The One Hundred Club of Contra Costa County or donate to it can visit www.100ClubContraCostaCounty.org, or call President Don Theile at 925-837-0199, or write him at P.O. Box 733, Danville, CA 94526.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 30 October 2008 )
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