Our Mission • Our Beginnings

Welcome to Tribute to Honor

"THEY were there for us . . . Help us be there for THEM"

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OUR MISSION IS SIMPLE

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We HONOR and SUPPORT our first responder and military Heroes and their families

through locally based support projects and actions.

 

We honor their service and sacrifice at every event we sponsor or promote.

We directly support the needs of these veterans and first responders and their families.

We raise funds for them and other local organizations that are allied with our mission.

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BORN WHEN THE TOWERS FELL

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We are a non-profit 501(c)(3) established in 2001, right after the 9/11 tragedy. We were originally started by five Portland Oregon police officers who were soon joined by several local firefighters. Our first mission was to help all of the affected first responders in New York who lost so much. When they were taken care of, the organization was brought back to Oregon to help local police and firefighter families. After ten years helping fire and police families, we decided to expand our efforts to the whole community.

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A MISSION TEMPERED WITH RESOLVE

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In 2016 Grant Coffey, a 37 year veteran Hazmat Chief with Portland Fire and Rescue, became the new Director after his only son CPL Keaton Coffey USMC was KIA in Afghanistan at the age of 22. Under his leadership, we added US Military families to our mission and made major upgrades to the nonprofit organization.

In 2017 Jeff Keller another Gold Star Father, came aboard with a heart to build up our K9 companion program. His son PFC Andrew Keller US Army, was KIA on 8-15-2012 mere months after CPL Coffey. Grant and Jeff first met visiting their sons, who are buried only feet away from each other at Willamette National Cemetery.

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In May of 2017, the T2H Board voted to transfer leadership of T2H to Grant. A new Board was formed and the By-Laws were modified to reflect an expanded mission. This new mission will include Military veteran causes and support of the families of these Heroes.

 

Our transition was finished in June of 2017. It included in part:

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• An expanded mission statement, including not only police and fire causes, but military veteran fund raising projects and causes. 

• A new Board of Directors some of whom are fire, police and military veterans. Our current board is now back down to three main members as principal officers

• K9s SAVE ( Serving Americans Veterans Everywhere ) – We have developed over 2 dozen canine teams with local deserving veterans in need, as part of K9's SAVE.  This effort was started in honor of Grant’s son, USMC CPL Keaton Coffey – an MP and a K-9 Handler who was attached to a Spec Ops Marine Raider Team, when he was killed in action in Afghanistan on May 24th, 2012. Currently we provide scholarships of $2,000 initial funding for veterans through our Vets with Pets programs.