THE GOOD STUFF! Jeff York’s Aspiration of Becoming a Brevard Deputy Comes True Thanks to ‘Dream for the Badge’

Dream for the Badge initiative funded by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Charity

THE GOOD STUFF! Sheriff Wayne Ivey recently announced “Dream for the Badge,” and on Friday, October 15, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office partnered with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Charity to make Jeff York’s dream of becoming a law enforcement officer come true. This new initiative enables children with terminal illnesses and adults with different abilities to experience a day as a law enforcement officer. You can help support this great cause by visiting DreamfortheBadge.com and purchasing raffle tickets to win a brand new Chevy Corvette.

To apply for the opportunity to achieve the dream, please send a brief summary by email to Lindsey@BCSOcharity.org that provides details about the child or adult applicant and their specific story of how they have always had a Dream for the Badge.

WATCH: Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey announced “Dream for the Badge,” a new initiative of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Charity that will enable children with terminal illness and adults with different abilities to experience a day as a law enforcement officer. You can help support this great cause by visiting DreamfortheBadge.com and purchasing raffle tickets to win a brand new Chevy Corvette.

Brevard County Sheriff’s Office and BCSO charity partner together to launch an initiative that makes dreams come true for children with terminal illness and adults with different abilities.

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Like most of you I hardly ever watch the news anymore because I’m tired of only seeing negative stuff and never ever hearing all of the great stuff that happens, right here in our own backyard.

So knowing that good stuff happens all around us every day, our agency decided to start a new program, “The Good Stuff,” so our citizens can enjoy hearing about the great work our team and citizens do to save, impact and forever change lives.

You know, stuff like what happened on Friday, October 15th when our agency partnered with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Charity to make a dream come true for Jeff York who had always dreamed of becoming a law enforcement officer.

You know one of the things I learned a long time ago is just how blessed I am to be able to do this job…not just the job of Sheriff, but the job of serving as a law enforcement officer.

Serving as a law enforcement officer is a job that I dreamed of as a child and was extremely fortunate to achieve. Sometime back though, I realized that no matter how much some children may dream of one day wearing the badge, it is a dream that will most likely never come true because of perhaps a terminal illness or a different ability that keeps them from being able to serve in our profession.

For some, children and adults alike, the dream of wearing the uniform was always out of reach…maybe because time was too short because of a terminal illness, a birth defect, or their different abilities somehow prevented them from being qualified for the job.

While up to now that may have always been true, it’s not anymore, as our agency and the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Charity recently partnered together to launch a brand new initiative called “Dream For The Badge.”

As part of this new initiative, kids or adults with a terminal illness, a birth defect, or any other factor that has prevented them from achieving their dream of serving as a law enforcement officer, now have the chance to serve for a day as a Deputy Sheriff with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.

Our very first Dream Deputy was Jeff York who is 59 years old and lives with his sister and her family, who look after him each and every day at their home.

Jeff spends each day patrolling the neighborhood, writing parking violations to his family and neighbors, and doing his paperwork at his desk in the garage, which he calls his precinct.

Jeff constantly reminds his family to always do the right thing and that if they don’t, he and “Sheriff Ivey” will be coming to arrest them.

With that kind of commitment to duty, Jeff was the perfect candidate to become our very first Dream Deputy, so on October 15th, we made his lifelong dream of becoming a cop, a dream come true!

Jeff was caught completely by surprise after his family told him they were going to spend the weekend at a hotel in Cocoa Beach. What Jeff didn’t know, was that the hotel was being provided by the Cocoa Beach Hoteliers Association who are great partners to our “Dream For The Badge” initiative.

After helping surprise Jeff with his uniform and duty equipment, Jeff’s Field Training Officer, Corporal Jay Martinez helped get him ready in his uniform and prepared for the next adventure in his career, the swearing-in ceremony that was attended by Jeff’s family and our entire Command Team who welcomed Jeff to our agency and BCSO Family.

After being sworn in Jeff returned to his patrol unit and began the start of his shift which of course starts by telling our Communications Team that you are 10-8 for duty.

After leaving the precinct, Jeff and his Field Training Officer spent the day on patrol as Jeff also got to experience many of the different elements of our agency, such as responding to calls for service from our citizens, our resources at the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Aviation Unit, and even a chance to see first hand how our K-9’s work with us to keep our community safe.

And of course, as any good cop knows, we never miss lunch, so Jeff and his family got to enjoy an incredible meal and some fun at the “Backyard Axe Throwing and Game Center” in Palm Shores who are also great corporate partners with our “Dream for the Badge” initiative.

Once lunch was over it was back to work patrolling the streets of Brevard County where Jeff got to respond to several more calls for service and even got to work with our Ag/Marine Unit at the Port, as they escorted one of the cruise ships out to sea.

As the day came to a close, Jeff had fully experienced his dream of one day serving as a law enforcement officer and was ready for some downtime with his family who worked closely with us to make Jeff’s dream come true!!

While all of us at the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office know how truly blessed we are to serve as law enforcement officers, watching Jeff achieve his goal through the “Dream for the Badge” initiative will be perhaps one of the most memorable and touching days of our career.

Before I go tonight, I want to give a huge shoutout and thank you to AJ Hiers of Boniface Hiers Automotive Group, the Andre Family from Frogbones Shooting Center, Tom Hermanson of Cocoa Beach Hoteliers Association, and the “BackYard” for making the “Dream for the Badge Program” a reality. Without their support, none of this would be possible.

If you know someone who would like to have their dream of serving as a law enforcement officer come true, please send a brief summary by email to dream@bcsocharity.org that provides us with details about the child or adult, and their specific story of how they have always had a “Dream for the Badge.”

HELP SUPPORT ‘DREAM FOR THE BADGE’

One of the things I learned a long time ago is just how blessed I am to be able to do this job…not just the job of Sheriff, but the job of serving as a law enforcement officer.

Serving as a law enforcement officer is a job that I dreamed of as a child and was extremely fortunate to achieve.

Sometime back though I realized that no matter how much some children may dream of one day wearing the badge, it is a dream that may never come true because of perhaps a terminal illness or a different ability that keeps them from being able to serve in our profession.

For some, children and adults alike, the dream of wearing the uniform was always out of reach…maybe because time was too short because of a terminal illness, a birth defect, or their different abilities somehow prevented them from being qualified for the job.

While up to now that may have always been true, it’s not anymore!

Starting today, every kid with a terminal illness, a birth defect, or other factors that prevent them from achieving their dream of serving as a law enforcement officer, will have the chance to serve for a day as a Deputy Sheriff with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office or as a Police Officer with a local Police Department.

The opportunity to serve for a day as a Law Enforcement Officer is being made possible as part of a new initiative started by our agency in partnership with our not-for-profit, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Charity and local business leaders who are committed to making dreams come true.

“Dream For The Badge” will give kids and adults as described above the chance to be a cop for a single day as they put on their custom-made agency uniform, equipment and the badge they always dreamed of.

After they are sworn-in they will get to hit the streets with a real Deputy Sheriff or local Police Officer to respond to non-violent calls, ride in airboats, tour our Aviation Unit, ride in our SWAT vehicle and of course, learn to eat donuts or “power rings” as we now call them.

The initiative is funded by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Charity through generous donations and partnerships with our local business leaders, Boniface Hiers, Frogbones Family Shooting Center and the Cocoa Beach Hotels Association.

You can help support this great cause by visiting DreamfortheBadge.com and purchasing a raffle ticket, or 20 raffle tickets if you will, to win a brand new Chevy Corvette – compliments of AJ Hiers and Boniface Hiers Automotive.

To apply for the opportunity to achieve the dream, please send a brief summary by email to Lindsey@BCSOcharity.org that provides details about the child or adult applicant and their specific story of how they have always had a Dream for the Badge.

– Sheriff Wayne Ivey

Similar Stories