July 2025 - We are Celebrating!
We are celebrating! In June, we received our largest donation yet in the history of Salt & Light Partners!
We are so grateful for the leadership at Mayo Employees Federal Credit Union to include Mary Hansen, Sue Palen, and Steve Flage, who graciously submitted Salt & Light for a match grant with Federal Home Loan Bank, Des Moines (FHLB). This funding will go a very long way in allowing us to support our first responders and their families.
House of Shields
On the 12th of June, we had the privilege of supporting the House of Shields annual golf tournament.
George and Christine volunteered at the 4th hole, where there was a Hole in One challenge. It was a great opportunity to spend the day chatting with many of the officers in the region who played the course.
Pictured from left to right:
Josiah Duitt, George Beech, Luke Hulshizer, Spencer Peterson & Aleya Noben (days before their wedding!)
We were also represented at the tournament by the Dose family who put together a Salt & Light team to golf at the event.
Pictured: Pam and Ken Dose
4th Fest!
Our RPD officers were working during the 4th Fest on the 4th of July at Soldier's Field so the RPD chaplains decided to show up and feed them. It was a hot day and the food and support were greatly appreciated.
Austin Police Department Family Academy
We held our first Family Academy for the Austin Police Department (APD) as they swore in four new officers. This is a wonderful way for us to introduce the families to the FROGs program and share the ways they can lean on Salt & Light and each other to create a supportive community.
Leading the discussion were APD FROGs Leader Danielle Hartman and APD Lead Chaplain Cory Goetz. Every officer brought family members, and the room was packed!
Heroes Hustle
The $5 5k was a great success! We had almost 100 people show up and walk or run the course. Between the 5k and the Sorellina's give back, $1,370 was donated to Salt & Light. It was a great evening of fellowship with our first responder families and our Chaplains. Our thanks to everyone who came out and helped to support Salt & Light!
Pictured above: Celebration photo at the end of the evening with many of the runners.
Pictured below: RPD/OCSO SWAT team on their way out for the run.
Safe City Nights
Safe City nights continues to be a great place for our chaplains to support our first responders and meet with citizens in our community. If you have not yet attended one of these events, be sure to get out to the one in August!
Ceremonies
From retirements to weddings, this past month has been filled with opportunities to celebrate life's joys and special moments.
Congratulations to RPD Officer David Metz on his retirement after 28 years of faithful service.
We were also privileged to be part of the wedding for two RPD officers this month, with Chaplain Shari Cape officiating the wedding ceremony for Officers Aleya and Spenser Peterson. May God richly bless your marriage!
It was a great honor to be asked to do the invocations to kick off Rochester Fest as well as the invocation for the Veterans and Military ceremony that same week.
Beneath the Badge
We were honored to co-host Christi and Dave Dyke of Beneath the Badge for a conversation about resilience and mental health for first responders.
Partnering with Meadows Center for Mental Health Services to bring this event to Rochester, the event offered our regional first responders a chance to bring their spouse and learn more about walking alongside each other in times of hardship.
Pictured from left to right: Christi Dyke, Dave Dyke, George Beech, Stef Donaldson, and Heather Cruz (founder of Meadows Center)
Deployed
Rochester Fire Department (RFD) was asked to deploy two firefighters to the Kerrville, Tx area as part of a statewide team to assist in recovery efforts.
The deployed team is comprised of a search team manager, two K9 teams, a logistics specialist, and a medical specialist.
We are proud to share that two members of RFD are part of this critical mission: Captain Jeremy Dostal, serving as the Logistics Specialist, and Captain Chad Kuhlman, serving as the Medical Specialist (pictured left).
As you can see, this month has been filled with opportunities to come alongside our first responders.
While we do not share about the deeply impactful stories of critical incidents here, for perspective, our chaplains spent 275 hours with our first responders and responded to four critical incidents (usually associated with a death) just in the last four weeks.
Thank you for your continued support of this ministry.
Please always reach out with any questions or requests you might have.
With gratitude,
The Salt & Light Team