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Sunshine and clouds mixed. High around 45F. Winds SSW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible..
Cloudy. A few sprinkles possible. Low 37F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph.
Officers in the Chicago Police Department (CPD) visited last year’s Get Behind the Vest Pancake Breakfast hosted by 19th Ward Ald. Matt O’Shea, which operated on a to-go/delivery basis due to pandemic restrictions. This year, officers will be able to gather with hundreds of people as the breakfast returns to its dine-in format. The breakfast will take place on Sunday, Feb. 19, at St. John Fisher Elementary School. (Review photo)
The Get Behind the Vest breakfast will be held at St. John Fisher Elementary School's Kane Hall, 10200 S. Washtenaw Ave.
Mounted police greet visitors outside Kane Hall as they arrive to the breakfast last year.
A festive mood fills Kane Hall during the 2020 Get Behind the Vest Pancake Breakfast. Inside, families and friends enjoy pancakes and sausage provided by The Original Pancake House-Beverly, owned by the Harrigan Family for almost 60 years. The breakfast fundraiser was started in 2015, but it has not been held in-person since 2020, just before the pandemic struck.
19th Ward Ald. Matt O’Shea and State Senator Bill Cunningham talk with breakfast visitors in 2022. A Mass honoring police will take place at St. John Fisher Church on Feb. 19 at 8 a.m. (Review photos)
Volunteers of all ages help package breakfasts during last year's carry-out breakfast.
Officers in the Chicago Police Department (CPD) visited last year’s Get Behind the Vest Pancake Breakfast hosted by 19th Ward Ald. Matt O’Shea, which operated on a to-go/delivery basis due to pandemic restrictions. This year, officers will be able to gather with hundreds of people as the breakfast returns to its dine-in format. The breakfast will take place on Sunday, Feb. 19, at St. John Fisher Elementary School. (Review photo)
The Get Behind the Vest breakfast will be held at St. John Fisher Elementary School's Kane Hall, 10200 S. Washtenaw Ave.
Mounted police greet visitors outside Kane Hall as they arrive to the breakfast last year.
A festive mood fills Kane Hall during the 2020 Get Behind the Vest Pancake Breakfast. Inside, families and friends enjoy pancakes and sausage provided by The Original Pancake House-Beverly, owned by the Harrigan Family for almost 60 years. The breakfast fundraiser was started in 2015, but it has not been held in-person since 2020, just before the pandemic struck.
19th Ward Ald. Matt O’Shea and State Senator Bill Cunningham talk with breakfast visitors in 2022. A Mass honoring police will take place at St. John Fisher Church on Feb. 19 at 8 a.m. (Review photos)
Volunteers of all ages help package breakfasts during last year's carry-out breakfast.
This year’s Get Behind the Vest Pancake Breakfast, hosted by 19th Ward Ald. Matt O’Shea, will feel just like old times.
For the first time since 2020, hundreds of people will gather in Kane Hall at St. John Fisher Elementary School, 10200 S. Washtenaw Ave., to raise funds for the campaign organized by the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation (CPMF) to purchase new bulletproof vests for officers of the Chicago Police Department (CPD).
The breakfast will take place on Sunday, Feb. 19, from 8 a.m. to noon.
Admission is $5 per person or $25 per family, and O’Shea is looking forward to seeing the community enjoy the return to an in-person event.
“It’ll be exciting to be closer to normal and having everybody back at Kane Hall for our ninth annual breakfast,” O’Shea said. “It was hard to make a go of it the last couple years. It hasn’t been the same. But, having everybody together to show the men and women of the Chicago Police Department that we care and want to support them, I’m excited.”
O’Shea has hosted the breakfast since 2015.
In 2021 and 2022, due to the pandemic, the fundraiser operated on a delivery and to-go basis.
The breakfast has raised more than $500,000 over the past nine years.
The first pancake breakfast fundraiser was held at St. Christina Elementary School in Mt. Greenwood, and since then, St. John Fisher has hosted the event.
Under normal circumstances, hundreds of people flocked to Kane Hall to enjoy pancakes and sausage provided by The Original Pancake House-Beverly, locally owned for nearly 60 years by the Harrigan Family.
At those breakfasts, officers with the CPD Mounted Patrol Unit greeted guests outside Kane Hall, and inside, numerous hand-made posters and signs with messages of support and gratitude for police adorned the entry stairway and dining area.
As guests enjoyed a meal prepared and served by volunteers, CPD officers mingled with the crowd while staff and volunteers from the CPMF, based at 10343 S. Pulaski Rd., in Mt. Greenwood, sold CPMF merchandise to support its activities.
With COVID-19 now out of the picture, the scene in Kane Hall will be just like old times.
“It’s just so nice to have everybody there, showing support for our police officers,” O’Shea said. “The community is standing together and letting police officers know that we care about them and that we’re here to raise money to help protect them. I’m just so proud of our community.”
O’Shea is a member of the CPMF advisory board, which helped launch Get Behind the Vest in 2014. O’Shea asked CPMF Executive Director Phil Cline how he could help, and the idea for the breakfast was born.
New officers with the CPD receive their first protective vest for free; however, vests only last about five years, and officers must pay for a replacement, which can cost about $600.
The CPMF has replaced more than 11,000 vests, and its goal is to provide 500 new vests every year.
The pancake breakfast, organizers said, helps make that goal a reality.
Dawn Dolan, CPMF events manager, said that, because many local residents are CPD officers, the fundraiser shows the community “is taking care of their own.”
Despite the breakfast being operated for the last two years on a to-go/delivery basis, Dolan said those fundraisers were still successful because “people came in droves.”
“Even when it was a non-in-person thing, we had people running all over delivering pancakes to people,” she said. “Everyone still supported it. It was pretty awesome.”
In the week leading up to this year’s breakfast, other events are planned to support Get Behind the Vest.
Kean Bros., the locally owned gas station at 111th Street and Talman Avenue, will donate 15 cents from every gallon purchased between Feb. 12 and Feb. 18. Kean Bros. is being supported in that effort with funds from AthleteX and Beverly Bank and Trust.
O’Shea will man the pumps at Kean Bros. on Friday, Feb. 17, from 1 to 3 p.m.
For the second year, O’Shea is partnering with WGN Radio host David Hochberg to raise funds during their “Vest-a-Thon.”
As part of Hochberg’s “Home Sweet Home Chicago” broadcast on Saturday, Feb. 18, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., money can be donated by visiting cpdvest.com or calling (872) 262-VEST (8378).
Donors will have the chance to win prizes, including skybox experiences at Chicago sporting events and autographed jerseys.
Last year, the Vest-a-Thon raised about $250,000.
At this year’s breakfast, St. John Fisher Roman Catholic Church will host a Mass, at 8 a.m., for police officers, their families and Chicagoans who support the CPD.
According to O’Shea, with a growing trend of police officers being shot, the Mass will offer prayers for the safety for officers who, in addition to bulletproof vests, need all the protection they can get.
In a news release, O’Shea said the trend is troubling.
In 2014, CPD officers were shot at eight times; none were struck. In 2021, 69 officers were shot at; 10 were struck; and one was killed. In 2022, officers were shot at 48 times, and eight were struck.
“Chicago Police officers are on the front lines every day to ensure our safety, and it is important that we do what we can to send them home safely to their families at the end of each shift,” O’Shea said. “It is imperative that Chicago police officers have access to up-to-date bulletproof vests with the latest technology advancements, and the funds raised through the Get Behind the Vest Pancake Breakfast and Vest-a-Thon will help to provide that.”
For more information, visit the website at the19thward.com.
Editor's note: This article is part of The Beverly Review's Get Behind the Vest special section. A digital edition of the issue can be viewed here
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