Dave’s spirit is at the David Glasser Athletic Complex.

I could feel it in the air last Thursday as the football players gave all their energy to doing their best, working as a team and using their skills and experience to try to win the championship.  They played a great game right after the field dedication.

I could feel his spirit in the air on April 5th when I saw all the big smiles as police officer volunteers played on the field with the kids from the neighborhood practicing various football moves and skills.  This was the Cardinals Football Skills Camp where the David Glasser Foundation partnered up with the Cardinals and Laveen Youth Sports and Raising Canes to have fun with the neighborhood kids and help them with some of  their football skills.

His athletic complex is just like Davey – really big, open and ready for fun.  It’s a perfect place to remember him and continue his legacy.

Before May 2016 when he was killed in the line of duty, Dave was fanatical about his love for sports – all of them.  Playing sports had taught him discipline, perseverance, strategy and accomplishing goals as a team.  Sports had helped make him strong and had given him a brotherhood that he never had experienced before.

Davey was tall but he was never the biggest man on his high school basketball team so he grew strong because his coach always put him under the hoop where the big guys who significantly outweighed him played.

Davey had a strategic mind – all the dots connected for him.   He used this gift well playing sports – making sure he was doing his part in helping the team move toward the goal the winning.

Davey was all about people and relationships and the ‘brothers’ he found in playing sports were some of the most important people in his life.

As an adult, sports gave him an outlet to have fun and be a little crazy – all for the purpose of supporting his teams.  It also became an important legacy which he planned to pass down to his son and to his daughter.

Davey was disciplined and committed – to God, his family and friends, and to sports.  You never had to question his commitment – it was unwavering.  That commitment also helped him learn to persevere – no matter what.   He had integrity – you could count on him to do what was right, even when no one would know.

When he became a Police Officer , Davey invested all of these characteristics and strengths into being great at it.  He was committed.  He persevered and grew strong as he was faced with the daily challenges of  fighting the evil on our city streets.  He loved the officers he worked with and it was important to him that they knew it.

Together, he and his squad worked tirelessly to take the bad guys off of the streets of our neighborhoods.  It was significant that Davey was killed in the driveway of a house in the middle of a residential area where hundreds of families live. That’s where his heart was.  These families have children.  Children who should be able to walk to school safely.  These boys and girls  should be able to ride their bikes safely down the street to their friend’s house without being scared of a drugged bad man with a loaded gun sitting in a van on their sidewalk.  Scary, isn’t it?

Our brothers and sisters in blue face these issues every day.  For us.  To help keep us safe.

The David Glasser Foundation is helping kids, parents and communities have a better understanding of how much police officers care and sacrifice every day – for us.  They are the good guys.

Davey started the work and we are continuing it – with your help.

Together, we are making a difference.  A difference that matters.  A difference that Davey gave his life for.

#8144loveyou.