The History of the 100 Club
The idea of the 100 Club began in Detroit, Michigan in 1952 after a local businessman was moved to action when a police officer was killed in the line of duty. The businessman wrote to 100 of his friends encouraging them to donate to a fund for the fallen officer´s family to get them through this emotionally and financially trying time. The response was 100 percent.
Below is a news article from the Seguin Gazette Enterprise about the motivation behind starting this local club.
Group to help families of fallen officers
By Ron Maloney
The Gazette-Enterprise
Published May 21, 2009
SEGUIN — On Aug. 7, 2000, New Braunfels resident and Department of Public Safety Trooper Randy Vetter was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Hays County.
A group of Comal County residents who were saddened and outraged by Vetter´s senseless death decided to do something to support the families of fallen police officers and firefighters, and the 100 Club of Comal County was born.
A 100 Club is a non-profit organized to provide financial aid and other support to the families of fallen law enforcement officers and firefighters, and the one in New Braunfels barely got off the ground before that county´s public safety community was to weather another tragedy.
On the morning of Christmas Eve 2000, Spring Branch Volunteer Fire Department was responding to a fire that destroyed a mobile home when firefighter David Butler suffered a heart attack on U.S. 281.
The truck he was driving, a heavy rescue vehicle, drove 3/10s of a mile through the median before crossing the northbound lanes, running nearly another half mile on the shoulder, striking a ledge and rolling over.
Butler, 43, was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival at University Hospital.
His wife and children were the first and so far are the only bereaved family to be helped by the New Braunfels-based 100 Club, which provides aid to the families of law enforcement officers, firefighters, first responders or jailers who are injured or killed in the line of duty.
And Wednesday, Seguin lawmen learned that the Seguin Board of Realtors wants to begin a 100 Club here to support members of local law enforcement agencies and fire departments.
As envisioned by Angela Mark of Century 21 United D&D Realtors, Guadalupe County´s 100 Club would also raise money to pay for training or equipment to make police or firefighters safer or to enhance the performance of their duties.
"One hundred percent of all donated money will go to officers, firefighters or to support their families or organizations," Mark said. "It´s very important to me that we get this established and going for the men and women who risk their lives for us."
Mark told Realtors assembled for the board´s meeting that she hoped to kick the 100 Club off about this time next year with a fundraising meal for the county´s first responders.
In the meantime, the Realtors will be organizing the group, setting up a board and creating a bank account, she said.
"Since May is Law Enforcement Appreciation Month, we´re in the planning stages of organizing an appreciation dinner,"Mark said. "We would like to have one agent from each office to work on a planning committee that will meet monthly."
The idea came back in March when Mark heard about a California incident in which an officer was shot and killed.
"I went to Linda Dietz, (also of Century 21 United D&D Realtors) and said, we have to do something,"Mark recalled. "The original idea then was to serve lunch for police officers and first responders. Then it kind of became a bigger thing."
The "bigger thing" is the 100 Club.
In addition to Comal County, Bexar and Travis counties have 100 Clubs, which have been around for a little more than half a century.
Mark and Dietz believed Guadalupe County should have one, and began looking for help, asking for assistance from the Seguin Board of Realtors.
The county´s law enforcement and firefighting agencies — including volunteer departments — will also be invited to take part, as is the city of Seguin, its business community and its citizens.
"Mayor Betty Ann Matthies said she´d help us get the community involved," Dietz said. "Hopefully, they´ll buy tickets for the meal — the city will help us out with the coliseum — and there will also be opportunities to buy sponsorships to support the 100 Club."
Sheriff Arnold Zwicke called starting a 100 Club here an "awesome" idea.
"This is a kind of insurance we hope we never need," Zwicke said. "But I´m excited to once again see the citizens of Guadalupe County step up to help and support law enforcement through this partnership on behalf of our officers. This is something we wouldn´t be able to do without them."
Seguin Police Chief Kevin Kelso said he too appreciated the effort.
"We had a 100 Club where I came from," Kelso said. "Fortunately, we never had to use it. I´m very excited about this."
Texas Parks and Wildlife Game Warden Kevin Frazier sees himself and partner Tracy Large as the law in the places in the county where Zwicke and Kelso´s officers rarely work — out in the hinterlands and on the county´s lakes and river.
"We´re kind of the law enforcement off the pavement," Frazier said.
He too views the 100 Club as a great idea for Guadalupe County, and said he hoped he would be able to help by encouraging friends and contacts to offer support to the group.
The risks of his job got hammered home about two years ago when his very good friend, Seguin native and former Seguin police dispatcher Teyran "Ty" Patterson, was killed in the line of duty while trying to save a fellow warden in a boating accident.
"That was a very tragic situation for the community, for the Pattersons and for myself," Frazier recalled.
The Pattersons learned what a brotherhood the law enforcement community is through the death of their son — and learned that Seguin would support them.
"That´s one of the things I love about Seguin," Frazier said. "People here come together to help in times of tragedy."
