Lori Hernandez
Officials with the Fort Worth Police Officers' Association on Tuesday handed out laptops to 23 Fort Worth high school seniors preparing to head off to college.
It marks the third year of the laptop giveaway program, administered by Cops4Kids, a nonprofit arm of the police association. Each year, the POA asks every school in the Fort Worth ISD to recommend a student going to college. Each of those are invited to the POA offices for dinner and a program recognizing their achievement and walking away with a laptop.
It is the very definition of a hand-up.
Sometimes, the giving doesn’t end with the laptop.
Lori Hernandez, a laptop recipient a year ago as a senior at TCC South/Fort Worth Collegiate High School, made the three-hour drive into Fort Worth for the event on Tuesday. She had to eat and run, though she lingered for a bit, because she had to return to Nacogdoches for finals to finish up her first year at Stephen F. Austin University.
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The group. Officer Bel Haddad is at left. Fort Worth Police Officers Association President Lloyd Cook is behind him. Officer James Novak, co-chair of Cops4Kids, is in uniform at right. Carlos Walker of the Fort Worth ISD is to Novak's left.
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As part of the ceremony, student recipients introduced themselves and announced what they had planned after high school graduation. This is Adrian Cardenas of Benbrook High School.
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Cesar Gutierrez of Carter-Riverside High School.
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Though more than out of the way, Lori wouldn’t have dared miss this. Without the POA and Cops4Kids, Lori might not have made it to SFA.
Just weeks before her high school graduation, tragedy struck. Her mother died suddenly, leaving her completely without — no safety net, no support system, and not even a roof over her head. The future she had dreamt of disappeared overnight. College at Stephen F. Austin, once a sure next step, vanished from reach. What had been a season of celebration became a moment of survival.
“When they called her name [last year at the laptop giveaway and presented her the laptop, I got emotional,” says Melissa Montalvo, Lori’s older sister. “At that time, it had been not even a month since we had lost our mom. So, it was a little bit emotional. The lady next to me said, ‘Oh, you must be proud of your daughter.’ I told her that wasn’t my daughter and explained the situation.”
That lady passed what she told her to Officer Bel Haddad, co-chair of Cops4Kids.
Cops4Kids stepped in to be that safety net, that support system, and, if necessary, to put a roof over her head.
“He said, ‘We’re helping,’” Montalvo says. “He showed up to help her in her time of need without even asking. That’s really special.”
Lori’s dreams are back on.
She is studying forest and wildlife management with a minor in military science at Stephen F. Austin. She hopes to pursue a career in ecology restoration or wildlife preservation.
Haddad and another officer attended Lori Hernandez’s high school graduation last year — a symbolic and tangible gesture of their support. They also brought a gift: a backpack embroidered with “SFA.”
Lori is receiving federal student aid and she received a few scholarships to help pay for her first year. She is also serving in SFA ROTC and the Texas Army National Guard, but when she has been short in tuition or living expenses, Cops4Kids has filled in the gap, quietly stepping in to ensure she could stay on track.
“Them helping me with my tuition, it was definitely a major relief on me, especially going through grieving and trying to find a way to make it to college,” Lori says.
Samya Green of Eastern Hills.
The Fort Worth Police Officers' Association was founded in 1948 by Officer A.C. Howerton. It advocates for the 1,700 officers at the local, state, and federal level. Because they’re involved in political discussions — and, ahem, a public pension — their reputation has been shaped — sometimes unfairly — by the imaginations of their opponents and recipients of speeding tickets. People will believe what they want to believe. To be sure, the organization hasn’t always stood on morally unambiguous ground. However, it's not uncommon for police officers on a beat to hand out a couple hundred bucks from their own pocket to someone down on their luck or otherwise in need. The POA helps officers cover that kind of outreach.
Cops4Kids conducts two big fundraisers in the form of pickleball and golf tournaments. The Oscar’s Pub golf tournament last weekend — where I found out about the laptop giveaway — benefits the nonprofit, too. There are other corporate sponsors.
Haddad says he and Officer James Novak, his colleague and Cops4Kids co-chair, have visions of raising money for a scholarship to Tarrant County College and TCU. That is a work in progress.
Cops4Kids also buy bicycles for the Fort Worth Memories giveaway at Christmastime, and officers also pass out gift cards for children in need at Christmas. They also buy Build-A-Bears for patients at Cook Children’s Medical Center during the holidays.
“We want to keep doing those things,” says Haddad, who has served in the police department for 18 years. “Plus, every year during Christmas, someone's home burns down or whatever. We'll get a request and, of course, we're not going to say no to that. We want to top it off with the two scholarships.”
School children in need is not unique to society. Hardship is a way of life for so many. They are the modern day David Copperfield or Oliver Twist.
Carlos Walker is the director of the Fort Worth ISD’s Family Action Center, which provides so-called wraparound services — providers and resources that support children and families with complex needs. That includes material support for food and clothing, for example, mental healthcare, family counseling, job and housing assistance, among many other things.
“When they're looking for somewhere to live, when they're looking for some type of assistance, when the parents are looking for jobs, when they're looking for clothing, that's our job,” says Walker, who along with the school district, has partnered with Cops4Kids on the laptop program. “Help them.”
Each year, about 1,600 children and families go to the Family Action Center for help, Walker says. It's essential work. Without a stable home life, learning is an uphill battle, overshadowed by insecurity.
Lori, though a beneficiary of Cops4Kids, is forging her own path. She is a member of the ROTC at Stephen F. Austin and the Texas Army National Guard, which requires a monthly commitment and another after she graduates. She is also about to begin an internship at the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin. She is a member of Ducks Unlimited and the Society of American Foresters.
Moreover, for the next semester she has earned the Eddie L. Lockey Sr. Memorial Forest Game Management Scholarship, as well as the Albert Ruel and Jewel Ester Parrott Memorial Scholarship.
Lori is in a good place despite all the headwinds. It started with a laptop and a village who adopted her, along with keeping the faith when the future seemed out of reach. Faith in something greater. Faith in the goodness of people. And, perhaps most importantly, faith in herself.
“To see her drive and motivation after such a traumatic year, to use that loss and turn it into something, that is admirable,” says Montalvo. “It was God working, to be honest. And Officer Bel, he's her angel. And probably for many other people as well. But he was her angel here.”
