Take a Chance on a Quilt to Save a Life

Law enforcement officers face danger every time they put on their uniforms, holster their guns and go out on the street.

The good news is, those officers have an extra layer of protection if they wear bulletproof vests. The bad news is, quality vests can be very expensive -- for some, the cost can equal a half-month's pay.

Currently, several dozen sheriffs and deputies around the state of Missouri don't have vests -- or the vests they have are old, outdated and don't fit properly. However, you could help those sheriffs and/or deputies win new vests by purchasing a ticket for the Missouri Sheriffs' Association (MSA) Women's Auxiliary Quilt Raffle.

The one-of-a-kind handmade quilt, created by Dianna Stockman, the wife of Mercer County Sheriff Stephen Stockman, and her sister, Sarah Bonnett, features patches from sheriffs' offices in Missouri's 114 counties - and it could be yours for as little as $10. Tickets can be purchased by anyone. You might want to buy several to increase your chance of winning!

Proceeds from the raffle, sponsored by the Missouri Sheriffs' Association Wives' Auxiliary, will be used to purchase bulletproof vests for sheriffs and deputies whose offices can't afford to buy them and other safety equipment, as proceeds allow. Southern Uniform and Equipment, a Missouri-based company, is donating the first vest. The company has promised to sell the rest to the auxiliary at cost. The names of those needing vests will be put into a separate drawing. The number of names to be randomly drawn depends strictly on the number of tickets sold.

The drawing for the quilt will be held October 8. The winner will be contacted by phone. The drawing for the vests will take place the same day. The names of the winner of the quilt raffle and the sheriffs' offices that win vests will be posted online within five days of the drawing.

The creator of the quilt said she's extremely pleased with how it's being put to use.

"I'm so happy they're (buying vests). We have to do what we can to help our law enforcement because they put their lives on the line for us every day. Any confrontation can turn into something bad," Dianna Stockman said. "I know I wouldn't want to do the job. I dispatched for the sheriff's office for 18 years under the previous sheriff and that was close enough for me."

More than 3,000 police officers' lives have been saved by body armor since the mid-1970s when the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) began testing and developing body armor and performance standards for ballistic and stab resistance.

According to the Police Executive Research Forum, officers that don't routinely wear body armor risk fatal injury at a rate 14 times higher than officers who do.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics' (BJS) show the risk of dying from a gunshot wound to the torso is 3.4 times higher for law enforcement officers who do not wear armor vests.

BJS show armor vests have saved the lives of more than 3,000 law enforcement officers over the past 30 years.

Currently, only 60 percent of all law enforcement agencies require officers to don body armor on duty.

To purchase tickets online, visit https://go.rallyup.com/quilt-raffle.

For more information, call Jeanne Merritt, MSA marketing director, at 573-529-6900.