Shauger Sponsors NJSPBA Gala Benefiting Survivor & Welfare Fund

The Shauger Group (TSG) lent its support to the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association (NJSPBA) this month, serving as a platinum sponsor of one of the NJSPBA’s major fundraising events: its inaugural Cigar Gala. One hundred percent of TSG’s donation—and all donations—benefited the NJSPBA’s Survivor and Welfare Fund, which aids law enforcement officers and their families.

“We were honored to support the New Jersey State PBA at their recent fundraiser,” said Donald Shauger, executive vice president of TSG. “The PBA’s Survivor and Welfare Fund does incredible work to support active officers, as well as to help families of officers who lost their lives in the line of duty. It meant a lot to us to know that our sponsorships would go a long way to aiding them, especially during such a trying year.”

The NJSPBA hosted its inaugural Cigar Gala on Tuesday, May 18, 2021. As a platinum sponsor of the event, TSG received tickets to the gala and were given a golf foursome the day of the event; TSG’s company banner was also displayed prominently at the event.

The Survivor and Welfare Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity that provides support and survivor benefits to the families of PBA members who passed away in the line of duty; the Fund also offers financial assistance to officers facing substantial personal difficulties. The Fund gives a $25,000 line-of-duty death benefit to the families of officers who lost their lives on the job, whether during their service domestically in the United States or abroad as a member of the US Military National Guard or Reserve. The Fund also runs a “Special Services Outreach Trailer,” a supply trailer used for community support: one of the trailer’s principle purposes is to travel across the country to “provide support at funerals of law enforcement officers throughout New Jersey and out of state,” according to the NJSPBA. The trailer was first used at Ground Zero, where it stayed for months after the September 11 attacks to offer support to first responders working around the clock in the World Trade Center site recovery efforts.

Patrick Colligan, president of the NJSPBA, noted that the Survivor and Welfare Fund “has been hit extraordinarily hard this year due to COVID,” with significant losses due to 14 line-of-duty deaths, members’ significant pandemic-related hardships, and members’ other non-COVID-related difficulties. According to Colligan, the “fund has not experienced a loss that significant since the 9-11 attack when [the NJSPBA] lost thirty-seven of [its] members.”

“Knowing how much the NJSPBA’s Survivor and Welfare Fund has suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, Don and I felt it was important for us to do anything we could to help their organization and their members,” said Lisa Shauger, president/CEO of TSG. “First responders are always on the front lines, but the pandemic has made their lives even more challenging over the past year—they’ve sacrificed and put their lives at risk to keep us healthy, and we want them to know how much we appreciate their sacrifices every day. We hope our support can help ease the burden on officers and their families during this particularly difficult year.”

Donations to the NJSPBA Survivor and Welfare Fund can be made year-round at https://www.survivorwelfare.com/donate-here/.