Yankee owner George Steinbrenner died in 2010, but his appreciation for the men and women in blue who protect New York City lives on.
For 32 years, Steinbrenner’s Yankee Silver Shield Foundation has provided for the education of the children of New York City police officers, firemen and Port Authority employees who died in the line of duty, and will do so for the family of NYPD officer Rafael Ramos, gunned down by a cold-blooded killer Saturday along with his partner, Wenjian Liu.
The foundation will pay for the education of Ramos’ son, 13-year-old Jaden, who attends Charles O. Dewey MS in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and offered to pay for the education of another son, Justin, who is a sophomore at Bowdoin College in Maine.
On Sunday, however, Bowdoin president Barry Mills informed the Ramos family that the college would provide full financial aid to enable Ramos to complete his Bowdoin education.
“We are a very close community, and we share in Justin’s pain and anguish,” Mills said on behalf of the college. “I know you join me in offering heartfelt condolences to Justin and the entire Ramos family, and I am sure you will respect their privacy as they and we support one another in the days and weeks ahead.”
Liu, who was recently married, had no children.
Steinbrenner started his foundation in 1982 after seeing a news account of four children flanking their mother and folding an American flag at the funeral of their father, an NYPD officer who had been killed in the line of duty.
“Who’s going to take care of these kids,” Steinbrenner asked his friend, former Olympian Jim Fuchs, who would run the foundation until his death, also in 2010. “We are.”
The foundation, now run by Fuchs’ daughter K.C., has paid for the educations of thousands of children of fallen NYPD, FDNY, state police and Port Authority workers in the tri-state area, as well as 700 children who lost a parent in the terrorists attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Contributions can be made to: Silver Shield Foundation, 870 United Nations Plaza, 1st Floor, New York, NY, 10017.
