Since the murder of Broadwater County Sheriff’s Deputy Mason Moore last month, tens of thousands of dollars have been raised his widow and children.
On Wednesday, Sheriff’s offices across Montana launched a new non-profit organization as a more permanent solution to help families of fallen and injured officers.
Custer County Sheriff Tony Harbaugh helped organize the fund to help reduce stress for loved ones of officers hurt or killed in the line of duty.
“The family all of a sudden has something like this occur and then they realize that ‘we still have bills to pay, we have major things to get taken care of’ and there isn’t really any funding to do that on a fast basis,” Harbaugh said.
Throughout the next year, the fund hopes to raise $2 million more to support Deputy Moore and other families.
The Guardian Fund has already donated $15,000 to the Montana Sheriff’s & Peace Officers Association.
The fund kicked off its campaign with a raffle Wednesday for Deputy Moore at the Montana Sheriff’s & Peace Officers Association convention in Helena.
“How many times do people say, ‘I wish I could do something or I wish I could do something more’ and this is an opportunity for people to do that,” Harbaugh said.
Donations can be sent to Montana Guardian Fund, P.O. Box 1182, Miles City, Montana 59301.
The option to donate online will be available soon at MontanaGuardianFund.org, which includes this overview:
Throughout our state’s history, 129 Peace Officers have sacrificed their lives and countless others have been injured in the line of duty.
These guardians sacrificed their lives for our great state and in doing so left behind spouses and children who now have to cope with this tragedy and the financial burden sudden loss brings. That’s where The Montana Guardian Fund steps in.
