This week’s “Thankful Thursday” would like to commend the Eugene, Oregon Police Foundation for their support of the Eugene Police Department and the communities they serve.  They created a community fund to provide financial support that allows the Eugene Police Department to support their community through immediate action.

According to Lt. Doug Mozan, the community fund has assisted a number of people in need ranging from a family with small children in a homeless camp, to domestic violence victims. Through the community fund, the family was housed at a local hotel for a number of nights to provide them with rest, safety and warmth. Other instances included homeless people who needed a pair of shoes, a man who needed a car part to leave town, and another who needed a bus ticket to go home.

The fund has also provided the Eugene citizens with more positive and proactive interactions with the police. Police Chief Chris Skinner asked the foundation to create a section of funding that supported community care and would be accessible by the department to provide funds immediately for people. Police Foundation’s typically fund resources for departments such as K-9 training, SWAT trucks, or tasers and this fund provides something totally different.

Chief Skinner is hoping the community views the police department as a strong charitable personality, with more funds to be used to help families with programs like “Shop With A Cop” to help underprivileged children. The department is looking forward to seeing how the officers react to a more stable funding source and how many people they will be able to help.