Police Academy Alumni to Host Fundraiser for Hope and Friendship Foundation

The Lemont Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association is planning a fundraiser to support the Hope and Friendship Foundation of Lemont, from noon to 10 p.m. Sunday at The Vault Café and Bar at 308 Canal St.

The Vault will donate 10 percent of the day’s receipts, plus all gratuities, to the non-profit Hope and Friendship Foundation, which offers assistance to community members in need. Members of the Lemont Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association will act as servers at the event on Sunday.

Hope and Friendship Foundation founder Terri O’Neill-Borders is grateful to the CPAAA for stepping up to help defray the costs of running the foundation.

“There are many costs that I used to absorb (fuel, insurance, toner, paper, state fees for non-profit status certification, and website costs, to name a few) when I ran [the foundation] on my own,” O’Neill-Borders said. “The CPAAA offered their time and effort to help rally funds to cover those costs, and the owners of The Vault were most generous to tell them their fundraising attempts were welcome there.”

O'Neill established Hope and Friendship in December 2005 to help those facing financial, emotional or physical crises and to provide “a conduit between those that have and those that need.”

Over the years, Hope and Friendship has organized community Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas meal deliveries and care packages, birthday parties for underprivileged children, food drives to support the Lemont Food Pantries, and various other fundraisers to support Lemont residents in need. O'Neill turned Hope and Friendship into a foundation this year, in order to expand the organization’s community outreach.

Hope and Friendship Foundation’s mission is “to extend a hand of friendship to those in financial, emotional and physical crisis, and to reassure them that someone is aware of their struggles, is willing to listen to them, and will work to provide any means of aid possible. We are friends helping friends.”

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