The past fourteen hours have been a whirlwind in our household/FORS “corporate office.”  We began with a radio interview at 6:30am, local news coverage at 6:45am and….GOOD MORNING AMERICA at 7:40am!  For those of you who were unable to see the “Dangers on the Highway…Roadside Accidents Kill a Cop a Month” story this morning, here is the link…

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1597732

The e-mails have continued all day, and we have had over 400 hits to our website.  I have learned so much in the past fourteen hours from the e-mails I have received.  I have heard stories that left me in tears.  More importantly I have heard stories of hope and desire to make our highways safer.  The e-mails have come from spouses of injured police officers and even from widows.  I have heard from tow truck drivers and tractor-trailer drivers from the east to the west coasts.  I have heard from police officers, troopers, fire fighters and medics.  Everyone wants to make things better in their states.  Everyone wants to make it home at the end of their shift.  Everyone wants to make sure that no more families get the “knock on the door.”

We have fought this battle for almost three years.  Just a small group of us, sometimes just one or two.  Our focus has been making North Carolina highways safer.  Today we have come to realize we can make our nation’s highways safer.

In under three years we have sustained FORS with little money and look how far we have come.  How did we do it?  Word of mouth.  We started out with an e-mail list of 20 and now we near 500.  We have never done an active fundraiser until right now.

I will be honest and frank.  I do not have the ability to put together a large fundraiser where we invite people from all over to come walk 5 miles to raise money for FORS.  Although I would love to spend a beautiful day outdoors with all of our supporters, I cannot.  My priority is my family and have taken so much time from them already.  So here it goes.  This is our fundraiser…

First, forward this e-mail to EVERYONE you know.  Print it and take it to work, church or your favorite coffee shop.

Second, please get out your checkbook.  Please write a check for $5, $10 or $25.  If you can do more then bless you, but we are grateful for $5 if that is all you can do.  Make the check payable to FORS.  Sign it.

Third, put a stamp on it and mail it to:
Families for Roadside Safety (FORS)
141 Spirea Drive
Waynesville, NC  28785

If we receive one $5 check from each person who reads this e-mail that will be over $2000!

Please.   However much I want to spend two months planning a wonderfully outrageous fundraiser, I cannot.  I would rather spend two months protecting those who protect us.  I know I have asked for donations before.  Thank you to those who have been able.  This is a new year.  We are a 501(c) nonprofit organization which means tax deductions.  Send the check.  If you have a co-worker sitting next to you ask them to write a check as well.  Save a stamp and mail them together.  Whoever you eat lunch with, ask everyone to forgo their dessert and include their dessert money in the envelope…trust me I know that is asking a lot.  I did not ask anyone to give up coffee money.

Two final notes:

First, our next Move Over Symposium will be on Friday March 10th from 9am -12noon at the AB Tech-Enka campus near Asheville, NC.  Stan Cogdill (Trooper Cogdill’s father), Tim Hayes (medic from Mecklenburg Co., NC who lost his legs in a “struck-by” accident timhayes.org) and myself with be speaking.  Thank you to Melissa Norman with Buncombe EMS for organizing the symposium.

Finally, thank you to Dick Ashton and the Int’l Association of Chiefs of Police for their support and giving Good Morning America our contact information.  Thank you to Allen Levine and the Good Morning America team for an outstanding story.  They saved so many lives today.  Thank you to Howard Cohen, Steve Austin and the gang from respondersafety.com. Most importantly, thank you to all of those families who have made the ultimate sacrifice.  All of our work carries an eternal memorial to the loved ones you have lost. 

This is it.  Our fundraiser begins as soon as I hit “send.”

SEND…