A Fraternal Apology

I would like to respond to an entry by Sharon K. Hays, of Valrico, concerning her experience with a solicitation call from the Fraternal Order of Police (Letters, Nov. 5).

I am the current president of the Hillsborough Sheriff's Lodge, and we do use a fund-raiser to solicit for our organization. However, we do not tape record our sales pitches and do not use high pressure to close a sale. Because we are an organization of police officers and deputies, we are not allowed, by law, to solicit for ourselves. Thus we have to employ a professional fund-raiser, as many organizations do.

We have been fortunate over the past several years to be linked with an organization who shares our common goals. Have we ever had some employees of the fund-raiser who cross the line in their sales pitch? Of course, and we have dealt with them.

As an organization, we provide life insurance to our members, but our reach into the community does not stop there. We provide a Christmas party each year for some of the underprivileged kids in our community. We also sponsor Little League baseball teams, as well as other worthwhile community projects and programs such as the C.A.R.S. program in many of our high schools.

After reading this letter from Ms. Hays, I began looking into the matter to see if we were actually at fault for this type of call. Our fund-raiser is currently concentrating on business sales in Hillsborough County and is making very few residential calls. I found out our state lodge has recently been calling in our area, and the company used by them does follow up on pledges made by folks. I am forwarding this information to the state lodge president, Jim Preston, for follow up with their fund-raising company.

There is nothing I have found indicating our Hillsborough County lodges - Hillsborough Sheriff's Lodge #108, Tampa Lodge #27 or Temple Terrace Lodge #101 - are responsible for the call received by Ms. Hays. Having said that, I would like to offer an apology to her for any uneasy feeling she may have felt due to this type of call. I hope one bad act does not discourage her from helping sound organizations in the future.