Group to Aid Police, First Responders

By JOE GYAN JR.
jgyan@theadvocate.com

A new nonprofit group called Friends of the Frontline said Thursday it hopes to raise at least $2 million for the estimated 2,000 sheriff’s deputies, police officers, firefighters and troopers in Orleans and four neighboring parishes who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina.

The group’s organizers say that retaining law enforcement personnel and first responders is vital to rebuilding southeast Louisiana, but without financial help many of them will be forced to look for jobs in other cities or states.

“We’re going to fight and stay and help each other,” Dennis Pasentine, founder of Friends of the Frontline and owner of New Orleans-based Florida Marine Transporters, said during a kickoff news conference in Metairie.

Pasentine presented Friends of the Frontline with a $100,000 check from his company, the first installment of a $250,000 pledge from his firm to the group.

The group of local business and political leaders and concerned residents plans to raise funds through a letter-writing campaign; selling merchandise such as T-shirts, window decals and commemorative rubber bracelets; and holding a Friends of the Frontline Day (live music, food, raffles and a silent auction) on Nov. 20 at the Castine Center in Pelican Park in Mandeville.

Jason Belcher, a Friends of the Frontline board member and chief financial officer of Florida Marine, said the goal for the Nov. 20 fund-raiser is to sell 5,000 tickets at $25 apiece.

Funds raised by the group will go to sheriff’s deputies, police, troopers and firefighters in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines and St. Tammany parishes. Representatives of each parish attended the news conference.

Plaquemines Parish Sheriff Jeff Hingle said two-thirds of his employees lost their homes and their possessions.

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