{"id":429889,"date":"2025-12-07T00:31:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T00:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/429889\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T00:31:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T00:31:19","slug":"gifts-delivered-to-families-of-injured-or-fallen-police-officers-nbc-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/429889\/","title":{"rendered":"Gifts delivered to families of injured or fallen police officers \u2013 NBC Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

With just weeks until Christmas, the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation is remembering and supporting the families of officers killed or injured in the line of duty by doing something special for their families to let them know they\u2019re never forgotten.<\/p>\n

Operation Santa<\/a> kicked off in downtown Chicago Saturday with the arrival of Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus.<\/p>\n

The Claus’ were joined by Chicago police officers, supporters, and members of the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation as they embark on a special delivery this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt warms our hearts to see smiles on the faces of the families that we promise to never forget,\u201d said Phil Cline, Executive Director of Chicago Police Memorial Foundation.<\/p>\n

They loaded up their vehicles to deliver gifts and holiday cheer to families and children of fallen officers and those who were seriously injured in the line of duty.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Gold Star families are extremely important to us they\u2019re resilience, they\u2019re strong, and they\u2019re tough and we have to make sure that we get out let them know that we\u2019re still there with them,\u201d said Superintendent Larry Snelling, Chicago Police Department. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Their first stop was at the home of Chicago police officer Carlos Yanez Jr<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s events like this that really makes me think about the good things in life you know,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no words, I mean just grateful, thankful, and blessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

His fellow officers greeted him with love, hugs, and tears and showered his 7-year-old son with gifts.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The] Chicago Police Memorial Foundation is so amazing what they do for the families throughout the years for our kids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The officer was shot multiple times during a 2021 traffic stop that killed his partner officer Ella French. Yanez said not a day goes by that he doesn\u2019t think about her mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cElizabeth French, I get most of my strength from Elizabeth<\/a> and my family,\u201d he said. \u201cElizabeth French is so strong anytime I\u2019m having a hard day I just think about her.\u201d<\/p>\n

This Christmas his one wish is for everyone and his fellow officers to be safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time you put on the badge and uniform you don\u2019t know if you\u2019re going to go home to your family,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a dangerous job, it\u2019s a service, we want to be there for other people. We want to help people and help them go home to their families at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Operation Santa will visit the homes of 13 Chicago police officers this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With just weeks until Christmas, the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation is remembering and supporting the families of officers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":429890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,7122,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-429889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-chicago-police-department","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115675469531580697","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}