Leroy Starck, chief of Metro West and grandfather of Heather Cochran, senior, died in 2005.
After Starcks’ death, his wife was provided with money to compensate her husband’s income because of a local foundation called the BackStoppers.

The BackStoppers is a nonprofit organization that provides support to families of local firefighters, police officers, publicly funded paramedics and EMTs killed in the line of duty. Financial aid is not provided if someone who works in the line of duty dies from other causes.

This organization started in 1959 and supports St. Louis and neighboring counties in Missouri and Illinois.

Immediately after a death of one of these brave men or women, their families are provided with a $5,000 check.

The BackStoppers Foundation follows up with these families by providing payment for financial obligations, health and dental insurance and elementary and secondary educational assistance for grades K-12. This includes $2,000 per child if the child attends public school and $4,000 per child if the child attends private school.

“On average we spend about $40,000 per family in a year’s time,” Chief Ron Battelle, executive director of the BackStoppers, said.

The BackStoppers also may provide assistance with other financial needs if approved by the board of directors.

Because the BackStoppers’ main goal is to relieve debt from the family, they help pay off their cars, their houses and other bills that the family is struggling to pay.

The BackStoppers host many events throughout the year to raise money for their organization, the most popular being Guns and Hoses, which is sponsored by Anheuser Busch.

Guns and Hoses is an annual boxing event between police officers and firefighters that took place on Wednesday, Nov. 24, at the Scottrade Center. Officer Joe Early did not attend Guns and Hoses this year, but has in previous years.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Early said. “There’s a lot of boxing matches and it’s set up like a real boxing match.”

This event generally brings in a lot of money, all which goes directly to the BackStoppers foundation. Last year this event generated a profit of $275,000 and the year before that $330,000.

“This year we’re expecting somewhere around $300,000,” Chief Ron Battelle said.

Cochran, is very involved with the BackStoppers foundation and attends most events. Cochran has an uncle who is a paramedic for monarch, a great uncle is the chief of monarch fire department, and a late grandfather, Leroy Starck.

“It’s a great organization,” Cochran siad. “My grandmother benefitted from BackStoppers donations after my grandfather passed away. It helped her a lot because she lived off my grandfather’s income and without it she would have been in a dilemma.”

Officer Early also said the BackStoppers Foundation is very beneficial.

“BackStoppers helps families pay for their houses, college tuition and other needs. They also try and pay off the families debt,” Early said. “It’s nice because the family is already going through a stressful time, so helping them with their finances takes off a lot of pressure.”