Tickets for a picnic planned to raise funds for a scholarship in memory of fallen Westfield Police Officer Jose Torres are sold out but the public can still help with the fundraiser by contributing prizes for a raffle at the event or by purchasing tickets for the raffle which will be available at a tent outside the Elks lodge on the evening of the Nov. 2 event.
WESTFIELD – Westfield Police Officer Jose Torres is gone but he will be remembered, not only by family, friends and co-workers, but also by kind students at Westfield High School who receive a “kindness” scholarship in his memory that will be awarded annually to a kind WHS student selected by the school’s guidance department.
Torres’ widow, Kara, is working with the Citizens Scholarship Foundation of Westfield to establish the scholarship and Torres’ friends in the Westfield Police Association are planning to help fund the scholarship by staging a “picnic” inside the Westfield Elks Lodge on Friday, Nov. 2.
Retired Westfield detective Sue Figy is helping to plan the event and said that, even though the tickets for the picnic are already sold out, members of the public who want to honor the fallen officer may help either by donating items for a raffle at the event or by buying tickets for the raffle.
“Even though we have no tickets left for the picnic, anybody can purchase a raffle ticket in a tent which will be set up outside” the Elks lodge at 5 p.m. on the evening of the event, she said.
The winning raffle tickets will be drawn at the event for prizes that include an iPad donated by Westfield Bank, Celtics tickets contributed by the Amanti family and a yearlong subscription to The Westfield News donated by the newspaper.
Persons who wish to contribute prizes for the raffle are asked to contact organizer Brenda Nihill at [email protected] or may drop off items at the Westfield Police Department.
