Our Mission
My brother and I provide support to youth and families of fallen police officers and other first responders all across the United States. We reach out to families of heroes that lost their lives in the line of duty, died by suicide, or from illness. We send a Blue-line Brothers comfort blanket personalized with the officer’s department patch or flag, badge number or name, and End of Watch date, along with a personal message card designed by us. Our hope is to expand our outreach with the thoughtful support of donors for years to come.
“It’s not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts.”
Where it all began...
Blue-line Brothers Blankets is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that our family launched in 2018 when we were 13 and 16 years old. Our father was a 22-year veteran of the Evesham Police Department in South Jersey. We began this initiative supporting grieving families of fallen police officers in New Jersey and the surrounding states, however, we have expanded that territory to families nationwide. More recently, we have also partnered with First H.E.L.P. to also gift families of firefighters, dispatchers, and EMTs nationwide.
Our childhood memories of our dad working shift work during holidays, nights, and weekends greatly impacted our family time together. As teenagers, we were even more aware of the stresses and risks involved in our father's career.
In addition, our grandmother passed away when our mom was a young teen. She has taught us how difficult it can be for a child to lose a parent at a young age. Our empathy toward youth who have lost a parent, along with feeling the daily challenges of being a police family ourselves led us to create this mission.
All funds raised for this mission are used toward the cost of personal embroidered blankets, sympathy cards, and shipping costs. All donors are added to our sponsor page. Please consider sharing what we do with others in hopes that we can expand our outreach with donor support. If you know any families that would benefit from our mission, you can use the contact link to inform us.
Our first two blankets were sent in memory of our grandmother, Diane Speidel, and in honor of our dad, Lt. Ron Ritter, with the support of our grandparents.
