Annbriar Golf Course in Waterloo hosted a fundraising event Friday for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, a national organization that helps pay mortgages for families of deceased military and first responders.

The event also honored three officers in the region who were killed on duty: St. Louis Officer Tamarris Bohannon, McHenry County Officer Jake Keltner and Fulton County Deputy Troy Chisum.

Families of the officers were each given a plaque in their family member’s honor.

Director of Holes Fore Heroes Golf Classic Josh Hecht said the event was able to raise $80,000 between sponsors and funds raised at the event itself.

“Without the sponsors, we couldn’t do what we do for Tunnel to Towers: pay off the mortgages,” Hecht said.

Hecht, an Illinois State Police Trooper, said he was inspired to start the event locally after the foundation stepped in to help the family of fallen ISP Trooper Nick Hopkins of Waterloo in 2019. 

Becky Keltner, wife of Officer Jake Keltner, spoke briefly at the event, recalling her relationship with her husband and the help Tunnel to Towers offered her and her sons following their loss.

“As a stay-at-home mom, I had no clue what I was going to do to take care of anything, but after that day, I knew everything was going to work out somehow,” Keltner said. “I was able to make me and the boys’ mental health and healing our main priority because of what Tunnel to Towers did for my family.”

Another speaker at the event was retired Fire Department of the City of New York Battalion Commander and Tunnel to Towers Foundation Board Member Jack Oehm, who spoke about his work with the organization as well as the foundation’s origins.

The name of the foundation, he said, came from New York Firefighter Stephen Siller, who died assisting survivors of the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001. 

Siller, with 60 pounds of gear strapped to his back, ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to reach the Twin Towers.

Oehm praised the spirit and purpose of the foundation as well as the support of the event’s sponsors and those in attendance.

“This right here is the goodness of America,” Oehm said. “Coming together every day to do the right thing for our true American heroes.”

To donate to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, visit t2t.org.