For the past five years, the Aurora Police Department and Illinois State Police have come together to sponsor a fun family event called Faith & Blue with a mission to build bridges between cops and the community.
Hosting this gathering has always fallen to the APD’s team of chaplains. And this year’s Faith & Blue, which will take place between 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 3, at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Montgomery, is special for a couple of reasons.
Dan Haas, an Aurora Police Department chaplain since the mid-1990s and one of the Aurora area’s most visible and vocal faith leaders, has been serving as interim pastor at this 135-year-old church on Douglas Road in Montgomery since March.
Also noteworthy is that earlier this year St. Olaf sold four acres to Wayside Cross Ministries, where this nearly-century-old nonprofit that focuses on helping the homeless, addicted, abused and incarcerated, will soon be breaking ground on a 12,445-square-foot youth center.
The building project – closing on the property is Oct. 17 – is a dream come true for Wayside and its Urban Youth Ministry, which has been holding summer camps for kids ages 5-17 at St. Olaf for the past 14 years.
But it’s also a shot in the arm for the church, founded by Norwegian immigrants, which had been struggling with viability as the congregation, like so many other mainline religions, has been aging while also navigating a loss in leadership.
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That’s how Haas, whose decades-long resume includes starting a church, a school and an anti-gang movement, came into this role as interim pastor.
Bringing cops and community together to quell violence has long been a focus of his ministries. But hosting this year’s Faith & Blue at St. Olaf is also significant because of the growing relationship between the church and its changing neighborhood, where residents had at first been wary of building a center for kids, many of whom could be considered at-risk.
And in fact, some people, including officials, voiced objections to this project, estimated to cost between $3 million and $3.5 million, as it wound its way through the municipality’s approval process.
Fortunately, the facts spoke for themselves.
Those included Urban Youth Ministry’s impressive 11-year track record of helping underserved kids find success. One statistic alone should impress: 93% of participants graduate from high school with 65% going on to college or a trade school, according to Robin Sterkel, who has been program manager at Urban Youth Ministry for 11 years.
This youth group also has developed an impressive list of community partnerships, including with police, schools, churches, the Fox Valley Park District and other organizations dedicated to making a difference in the lives of the underserved.
Hosting this year’s Faith & Blue will hopefully put any of those fears to rest, said Haas, who sees this fun family event as a “great opportunity” to not only “put neighbors at ease” about the center, which is right next door to St. Olaf, but highlight how the “church is committed to working in the neighborhood” to keep it safe.
“This is a really good fit” because Faith & Blue “is so much about the youth,” said Haas, noting that games and giveaways will be featured, as well as hot dogs, chips and ice cream. In addition, guests can view the Illinois State Police rollover and accident simulator, special response team vehicles and take a tour the APD Command Post.
There will also be a question-and-answer session with law enforcement from Aurora and the state. But the most important aspect will be the chance to get to know officers who work directly with the community.
Sterkel’s Urban Youth Ministry students are, of course, “very excited” about the event.
“We’ve been recently talking about how God gave us the 10 Commandments, the “first laws to follow” that are still used today, and “how important” it is there are police officers to “make sure everybody follows the laws to keep us all safe,” Sterkel said.
“We are praying we raise up the next generation to respect and appreciate our men and women in blue.”