McCrabb: Full police memorial inspires former officer to lead fund-raising effort that generates $20K

Last March Jon Stiles drove to Woodside Cemetery to pay respects to his father, then he visited the Middletown Division of Police Memorial.

Stiles, who served as a Middletown police officer for six years, noticed that the granite memorial erected in 1982 was out for space for additional names of retired officers who died. The memorial held 100 names.

“That bothered me a little bit,” said Stiles, 61, a Middletown cadet in 1979 and an officer from 1981-85.

For most of us, here’s where the story would have ended. Get in our cars and drive home.

Instead Stiles took action.

He called two longtime Middletown business leaders Donnie Osborne, owner of The Jug, and Bryan Black, owner of Family Hearing Centers, and Perry Davis, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Associates. They decided to raise money to purchase another memorial so the names of four Middletown officers not on the stone could be added along with those retirees who die for the next several decades.

Stiles, president and CEO of Party Source in Bellevue, Ky., called one of Kentucky’s best distillers and asked about obtaining a rare bottle of bourbon as a possible raffle prize. The man was interested because his late grandfather was an investigator for the Scotland Yard.

You can’t make this stuff up.

They got a bottle of Double Eagle Very Rare, limited to 600 bottles and valued in the thousands.

Then Stiles, Osborne and Black contacted Barrels and Bottles Foundation about participating in a national raffle. The $20 raffle included more than 30 bottles of bourbon and raised $100,000 that was divided among five organizations.

Last week, Stiles, Osborne and Black presented Davis a check for $20,000 to go into the FOPA’s legacy account. Part of the money will be used to purchase the Police Memorial marker and maintain it for decades. Several other Middletown organizations and residents donated to the memorial.

“This was a cause that was important to me,” Stiles told Middletown Police Chief David Birk and several Middletown officers who attended the check presentation.

“It means a lot to have this set up for the officers,” Davis said. “The amount of money blew my mind. The next several generations won’t have to worry about the memorial.”

Birk said the department and the FOPA have “a great partnership” and the lodge supports many police-related events in the city, including Casting with a Cop and Shop with a Cop.

The chief gave the three men Challenge Coins and K9 Challenge Coins as a show of his appreciation.

As Stiles stood in the police lobby leaning on his cane, he was asked what will go through his mind the next time he visits Woodside and sees the new memorial and the etched names of former officers.

There was a long pause as Stiles looked around the police lobby that’s decorated with historical and new photos of Middletown officers.

“My wife asked me on our way here if I ever thought I’d be in Middletown donating $20,000,” he said. “The answer was ‘no.’ But we got something done and we made a place for police officers to be memorialized.”