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From TSRA:
Dear Friend,

Most of us went to bed last night knowing of the tragedy that occurred in Dallas. Many of us have a friend or family member who works in law enforcement, and to know that they could be targeted simply for doing their job is upsetting and painful.

The thoughts and prayers of all members, staff, and the Board of Directors of the Texas State Rifle Association are with those officers and their families shot in Dallas. We support, respect, and love all our law enforcement, local, state and federal, and all the brave first responders who come to aid.

We want to pass along a website where those who wish to can donate. You can donate by going to: http://atodallas.org/

The TSRA will continue to pray for those in Dallas, across the state, and across the country. We ask those who pray to join us.

Sincerely,

Justin W. Williamson
Director of Communications
Texas State Rifle Association

Our circle of friends is starting to organize what we can do to help our friend who lost her husband and their kids' father. They are active members in our Catholic church and school. His loss will affect many many people because his wife is also a teacher at our school. Hundreds of her students and daughters' friends are grieving right now and finding it difficult to give them some space for now. The immediate family needs their time first without being smothered by everyone else. We have one or two people that have been in direct contact that will help coordinate everything among our church and friends.

However, I, in no way, would discourage anyone from donating to help all the families affected by this horrific tragedy that lost loved ones last night.

Thanks for the link.

the frisco rough riders baseball team will be running auctions this weekend and taking donations for Assist the Officer as well from what I have been told.
Players will be wearing DPD hats which will be auction off.

I donated last night to ATO Dallas. Not a huge sum, but I hope it helps.

C-dub wrote:Our circle of friends is starting to organize what we can do to help our friend who lost her husband and their kids' father. They are active members in our Catholic church and school. His loss will affect many many people because his wife is also a teacher at our school. Hundreds of her students and daughters' friends are grieving right now and finding it difficult to give them some space for now. The immediate family needs their time first without being smothered by everyone else. We have one or two people that have been in direct contact that will help coordinate everything among our church and friends.

However, I, in no way, would discourage anyone from donating to help all the families affected by this horrific tragedy that lost loved ones last night.

I know that citizens in Carrollton have been donating to a go fund me for officer smiths family as he lived in our town.
gofundme.com/mikesmithdpd

rentz wrote:

C-dub wrote:Our circle of friends is starting to organize what we can do to help our friend who lost her husband and their kids' father. They are active members in our Catholic church and school. His loss will affect many many people because his wife is also a teacher at our school. Hundreds of her students and daughters' friends are grieving right now and finding it difficult to give them some space for now. The immediate family needs their time first without being smothered by everyone else. We have one or two people that have been in direct contact that will help coordinate everything among our church and friends.

However, I, in no way, would discourage anyone from donating to help all the families affected by this horrific tragedy that lost loved ones last night.

I know that citizens in Carrollton have been donating to a go fund me for officer smiths family as he lived in our town.
gofundme.com/mikesmithdpd

The outpouring of support has been enormous! There was an event in Farmers Branch yesterday that was supported and operated by many from our school and church.

I also learned yesterday that Michael was not supposed to be there at all. This is heartbreaking. He was on vacation and called in because of the event. This was also not his area where he normally worked. He was reassigned to this area on that night because of the event and many of the officers closest to it were not allowed to wear bullet resistant vests or any other ballistic gear because they didn't want that image at this event. They thought it might inflame them or send the wrong message. I still don't know where he was hit, but it probably wouldn't have made much difference for a rifle round(s).

Michael's wife is, understandably, furious about those circumstances, but I don't think there was any way to have predicted what happened. After all the mayhem with the protests up in MN a couple days ago, none of those officers were murdered. Some were injured, but they'll all go home to their families and loved ones. The part about those protests that upset me was when that chief in MN said that they train for the worst and hope for the best and that the worst happened that day. None of his officers were murdered. It was far from the worst and after Dallas he should know better than to make that kind of a statement.

My daughter was asked by the family and will be an alter server at Michael's memorial service at our church this week.

Always be sure to whom you give your money. I cast no aspersions on this organization, but they don't have any ratings with Charity oversight orgs nor the BBB. I encourage everyone to do their own research. Goldstar.org is one site available to check on groups not rated by the larger charity watch organizations. I am a life and contributing member of The 100 Club. They have been giving financial assistance to the families LEO's and Fire Fighters who have fallen in the line of duty since 1953 for police officers and fire fighters were added in 2001.

There are several ways to donate. Dallas has terrible health insurance and life insurance for their police officers. This I've learned from a couple officers that I've known for many years. Michael had about 3 years left before retirement, but was considering early retirement this year. I don't know if his family will get any of that retirement.

http://www.fox4news.com/news/171903939-story
There are several links to how to donate on this page that I've also listed below.

https://atodallas.org/

http://www.dallasfoundation.org/

http://www.dallasfoundation.org/

http://www.cftexas.org/dallasshootings

C-dub wrote:There are several ways to donate. Dallas has terrible health insurance and life insurance for their police officers. This I've learned from a couple officers that I've known for many years. Michael had about 3 years left before retirement, but was considering early retirement this year. I don't know if his family will get any of that retirement.

Thanks for those links, C-dub. I like the go fundme and will be using those. Continued prayers for the families and friends of those murdered and for all those in law enforcement. #P4P
Edited: I took the liberty to add the 100 Club for Central Texas / Dallas.
http://100clubcentex.com/

The only issue I have with go fund me is that they keep a portion of the donations. I thought I'd heard it was an unusually significant portion, but aren't sure.

The atodallas one is giving 100% to the families. Our church, the Smith's church, also has one set up and is giving 100% to the Smirh family, but I don't have a link at this time. It is the Mary Immaculate Catholic Church in Farmers Branch.