For many years, the BackStoppers organization has served as a means of support for families of fallen first responders in the St. Louis region, involving numerous counties in both Missouri and Illinois.

Monroe County has enjoyed membership and given back to BackStoppers since 2003, and the local group will be hosting its 20th annual fundraising event this Saturday.

Larry Gardner with BackStoppers of Monroe County spoke about how he helped get this county involved with the organization to begin with.

Though he’s now retired, Gardner previously served as a deputy with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department alongside Dan Hannon.

Gardner credited Hannon for originally suggesting Monroe County get involved with BackStoppers, as Gardner had only been generally aware of the group and the work the organization did for first responder families.

As Gardner described, it took no small amount of effort for Monroe County to join up.

After getting in touch with the executives at BackStoppers, they were told they’d need 75 membership pledges from local businesses, ensuring the BackStoppers leadership that Monroe County would be able to meaningfully contribute to the greater organization.

Gardner suggested that their contact at the time didn’t have much confidence in Monroe County pulling its weight, as that 75-pledge requirement jumped to 100 – though local support didn’t disappoint.

Ultimately, it took a wave of support from local police chiefs and politicians to show BackStoppers that folks in Monroe County were sincerely interested in being part of and contributing to the wider BackStoppers community.

“We sent letters from our chiefs, we had Jerry Costello write letters, we had Dave Luechtefeld write letters, anybody we could think of that we thought might have any influence… we had them all write letters to BackStoppers saying ‘Hey, Monroe County is a real thing,” Gardner said. “‘We will get behind this. We will support BackStoppers.’ And that’s pretty much how we got in.”

Monroe County has shown plenty of support in the years since, particularly through it annual trivia night fundraiser which began in 2005.

Gardner recalled how the first three fundraisers took place in the Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic School gym. The first year, he said, they raised around $7,000, with that number growing to $8,000 and continuing to gradually climb over the years.

With the trivia nights now taking place at the Hecker Community Center for some time, the total amount of funds raised by the event has reached $457,123.

Gardner voiced his hopes for this year’s trivia night to clear $32,000.

The other major source of support for BackStoppers – aside from general donations – is memberships, with individual officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel paying to support their fellow first responders.

“We really push for first responders to take memberships,” Gardner said. “BackStoppers is pretty much funded by donations like our organization is doing and by people taking memberships.”

All of this support is in service to an organization that helps the families of first responders in their darkest hour and beyond.

Gardner spoke about how BackStoppers offers tremendous financial aid for families of first responders who die in the line of duty, wiping out debt, taking care of the mortgage, paying for children’s tuition from kindergarten through graduate school and generally ensuring that they don’t have to face financial hardship after they’ve lost a loved one.

Joe Krump, former president of Monroe County BackStoppers, spoke quite highly of the organization.

Krump noted how he’s served as a Waterloo firefighter for 40 years, starting out as one of a fairly small group of individuals just helping out as needed, with training, liability and certification all changing and growing in more recent years.

He spoke on the lack of life insurance he’s seen and how BackStoppers helps provide a sense of security in this regard.

“An organization like BackStoppers kinda fills that blank in,” Krump said. “It’s something you hope you never need, but knowing that there is a group of people, a charity that raises money that will take care of your family if you are killed in the line of duty, it’s huge.”

Krump further discussed how Monroe County BackStoppers has made more of an effort in recent years to get local first responders signing up for memberships.

He said there’s a sense of pride in contributing to the organization and the work they do.

“That doesn’t replace the person that was lost, at all, but knowing that you’re part of that, just gives me personally a lot of pride, knowing that I can hopefully give back to somebody that has made the ultimate sacrifice,” Krump said.

Hannon, who currently serves as president of Monroe County BackStoppers, also spoke about the organization and its importance in the area.

Now retired for six years but having served as a sheriff’s deputy for 36 years, he, too, spoke about the sense of security BackStoppers provides and why he helped get Monroe County involved to begin with.

“I did it for every first responder,” Hannon said. “It’s a lot easier to be a first responder when your family doesn’t have to worry about when you go out, if something happens to you, who’s gonna take care of them? BackStoppers pretty much eliminates that.”

Gardner likewise explained how much better it is for first responders to do their jobs knowing someone is watching out for their families should the worst happen.

“As a police officer on the street, if I would have been shot and killed or killed in a car accident or directing traffic, knowing that BackStoppers would step in and take care of my family, knowing my wife and kids wouldn’t have any financial worries the rest of their lives, it made it a little easier,” Gardner said.

The fundraiser takes place this Saturday, March 1, at 7 p.m., with folks enjoying trivia and a silent auction through the evening.

 While tables are largely full with the event coming up, those still hoping for a last-minute table can reach out to Gardner at 618-939-8067.