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July 26, 2008
Dynamic duo shares love for service
Officer Jay Valle of the Fairfield Police Department has chosen to honorstudent Shawn Higgins, a recent graduate of Fairfield Ludlowe High School.
Every month, in a feature called Heroes Honoring Heroes, People’s United Bank and a local police department honor a police officer and a student for excellent school performance or for the good works they do. To the student winner, People’s gives a $100 U.S. Savings Bond.
This month, recognition goes to Officer Jay Valle of the Fairfield Police Department, who has chosen to honor student Shawn Higgins, a recent graduate of Fairfield Ludlowe High School.
What has impressed Valle about Higgins is the young man’s dedication to community service. Higgins’ mother, Donna, succumbed to cancer in January 2002, and even before his loss, Higgins made it his personal goal to raise as much money as he could for cancer research. He recalls meeting a nun associated with Bridgeport’s St. Vincent’s Medical Center in 2001. She was taking part in the Swim Across the Sound’s Aquathon, in which area residents swim laps in the Fairfield University pool to raise money for cancer research.
When Higgins met the nun at St. Vincent’s, he was so impressed that “she was swimming for my mom,” that he went out that evening and raised $1,000 to help fight cancer. In the seven years since, Higgins has raised more than $10,000 in his mother’s memory. He has participated in both the Aquathon and the Walk-a-Thon that support the Swim.
“He’s a very unselfish young man,” Valle notes. “I am proud of him because he took on a responsibility — raising money for cancer research — and continues to follow it through.”
Higgins, who is pursuing a career as an electrician, has lived with his grandparents since the loss of his mother.
Valle, a 16-year veteran of the Fairfield Police Department, has been a field training officer in the Patrol Division, and worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration. He is the department’s Officer Friendly, “so I’ve run the gamut from chasing down bad guys to being kindergarten cop! And I’ve enjoyed it all!”
Posted by Bustraan on July 26, 2008 7:01 PM
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