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(Reidsville, NC) – Friends of retired Reidsville Police Department Corp. Daniel B. Velazquez, who died suddenly Friday, June 3, have initiated two fundraisers to help pay his funeral expenses and assist his youngest son, Elisha, with expenses when he enrolls at Appalachian State University in the fall.
According to the Wives of The Blue Line Treasurer Courtney Bailey, the family did not have insurance to cover the burial expenses. The organization members also are concerned for other extra expenses the family now faces.
To help defray the costs, Marty gave up her husband’s Smith & Wesson Model MMP15/22-Caliber 22 long rifle with an ACCUshot scope. It also includes two25-round magazines. Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased at PLS The Rock gym, 156 N. Scales St. or through Paypal: paypal.me/Bluewives . The drawing will be held June 18. All these funds will be applied to funeral expenses.
The organization also has established a GoFundMe page for the family: https://gofund.me/689784fd.
Velazquez, who retired two years ago, was a retired 20-year U.S. Army veteran with the 101st Airborne, who was working for the Miami Dade Sheriff’s Department in Florida when he decided to move his family to Reidsville in 2008. He joined the Reidsville Police Department a few weeks later.
During his Army career, Velazquez served his country in the first Desert Storm, then in Central and South America, most of the time working special operations in the Southern Command (SOCON).
In Reidsville, he immediately became a popular officer, serving as a DARE instructor at South End and Moss Street schools. His duties often exceeded the classroom instruction. Once he helped get help for a little girl who was caring for her younger siblings because her mother was a drug addict. Velazquez found help not only for the child but a program to get her mother off drugs. He also was involved in the police department’s summer youth program.
He worked in security at Rockingham Community College and was an instructor for RCC’s Basic Law Enforcement Training Program.
With his wife and son, Velazquez often assisted with Wives of the Blue members at events to provide toys and clothes at Christmas and food year-round for needy children in the community.
Marty plans to upgrade her catering business, baking and selling breads, cakes, scones, pies and other items at the Reidsville Farmer’s Market on weekends. She also does wedding cakes and “elaborate” birthday cakes.
Elisha, the youngest of the couple’s three children, was an honor roll student in RCC’s Early College Program and has been accepted at Appalachian State for this fall. He hopes to get his bachelor’s degree in clinical psychology.
The family attended New Life Baptist Church on East Market Street.
Further information can be obtained by calling Bailey at 336-951-7613.
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