What Bluecoats Does
While Bluecoats’ charter in 1959 began strictly as support for widows and orphans of fallen officers in Akron, the needs – and the safety record of the community – have since allowed the organization to greatly expand its services. Successive revisions of the Articles of Incorporation have broadened assistance to include:
- all actively serving first responders in Summit County
- those who are killed or injured in the line of duty
- those who face catastrophic needs beyond their control, whether duty-related or not
Beyond emergency assistance, Bluecoats has also provided wide-ranging support for initiatives that optimize preparation for duty:
- undergraduate scholarships at the University of Akron in Criminal Justice and Fire Technology
- continuing education grants through the Summit County Police Chiefs and Fire Chiefs Associations
- grants to support wellness and fitness
- grants to provide mental health resources for first responders through the Safety Forces Support Center
- limited capital grants for equipment or programs that support multi-jurisdictional or multi-disciplinary endeavors
How Bluecoats Works
Bluecoats members join simply as a matter of conscience – they want to support those in the safety forces community, who may be in need, for having served us first. Period. Neither the Organization nor its members seek any recognition for their work with first responders, and all officers, board members and committee members provide their time as unpaid volunteers. Every request is reviewed quickly, confidentially and with utmost respect to maintain the dignity of the officer and family involved.
How Bluecoats Started
Back in the 1950s, Fred Barton was a semi-retired free-lance writer by profession, and a friend of the protective services by avocation. He had been a founder and long-time associate of The Akron Crime Clinic and he had a heart for all safety forces, whether police officers, fire fighters, or sheriff’s deputies.
He felt that by helping good candidates to join one of the protective services – and to stay with it – the services themselves would become stronger. Barton hoped that by helping one person in need, the other fellow members would have more confidence in serving a community that recognized the nature of their special responsibilities and risks. He tried to broaden community participation by asking for small donations from his many associates whenever he heard about an officer in need.
Then one day Barton stopped his friend, Akron businessman James Newman, once too often.
While Newman fully believed in the needs Barton brought to him, he suggested Barton make a larger request of his friends, use it as necessary, and then come back when he needed more. He even referred Barton to an organization in Detroit doing the same type of work. That group, called the One Hundred Club, graciously provided administrative guidance to help get the fledgling Akron group get off the ground. Around that time, an article in the Saturday Evening Post about the Detroit organization was published with the title, “The Bluecoats’ Best Friend.” The Bluecoats name appealed to the Akron group as more descriptive of their focus, so on February 5, 1959, Bluecoats of Akron was incorporated.
Charter members joining Barton and Newman included Lisle Buckingham, Joe Griffith, Harlan Paige, Bob Wilson, Clarke Mack and Penfield Seiberling. Throughout its history since then, Bluecoats has benefitted from the talent, vision and energy of Summit County’s premier leaders.
