Warren County Sheriff’s Foundation Working to Strengthen Community Connections

The Warren County Sheriff’s Foundation may be less than a year old, but its mission is already reaching across the community — from mentoring local youth to supporting seniors, assisting deputies with community outreach programs, and helping meet needs that fall outside the traditional sheriff’s office budget.

“We look out for people from the beginning of life to the end of life,” said Foundation Chairman Walt Mabe during a recent interview with the Royal Examiner. “We touch so many people every day, and we try to take care of needs that can’t normally be met with what the sheriff’s budget’s all about.”

The Warren County Sheriff’s Foundation is a nonprofit organization working in partnership with the Community Foundation of the Northern Shenandoah Valley. Its focus is simple: strengthen trust and relationships between law enforcement and the community through programs, outreach, and support services.

“We want them to know who we are, what we’re all about, how we do things,” Mabe said about the foundation’s youth mentoring efforts. “Because it’s not the way that it’s on TV most of the time.”

Programs supported by the foundation include youth mentoring initiatives, the Explorer program for teenagers interested in law enforcement careers, Citizens Academy classes, senior outreach efforts, community education programs, and National Night Out activities.

Mabe described the Citizens Academy as one of the organization’s most valuable tools for building understanding between deputies and residents.

“For six or ten weeks, once a week, we sit, talk, actually do some things with the sheriff’s department, talk to different department heads to find out what they do and how they do it,” Mabe said. “The Sheriff’s Foundation is actually out to help educate the public as well as some of the deputies that want to be involved in it.”

Board Advisor Bob Battani said the foundation was created in part because many law enforcement agencies lack sufficient funding to provide the level of community engagement they would like.

“A lot of agencies don’t have the kind of budgets that they need to really do community policing like they would like to,” Battani said. “That was one of the reasons the foundation was set up — to allow the sheriff to have additional funds and extra support.”

The foundation also supports senior-focused programs designed to reduce isolation and improve safety.

One initiative helps seniors carry emergency medical and contact information that deputies can quickly access during emergencies. Another program, Operation Telephone, provides wellness check calls to residents who may be vulnerable or living alone.

“If we try a couple times and we can’t do it, we may send a representative out to check on them to make sure they’re okay,” Mabe explained. “I think it’s a great program.”

The organization is also helping promote Smart911, which allows residents to voluntarily provide medical conditions, medications, and emergency information that dispatchers and first responders can access during emergencies.

“For them to know that walking in the door helps a lot,” Mabe said.

Beyond programs, foundation leaders say one of their biggest goals is to change perceptions and build relationships before emergencies occur.

“You see that immediately when you go to the schools,” Mabe said while discussing School Resource Officers. “Kids will walk up and hug these guys or these gals. And that’s important because if you don’t know who you’re dealing with, how can you be a leader or a controller of any situation?”

The foundation has also started expanding fundraising efforts to help sustain its growing programs.

Upcoming events include the “Battle of the Bites” restaurant competition in the Riverton area, where participating restaurants will donate proceeds to the foundation while competing for community bragging rights.

“We’re trying to push as many people as we can into these restaurants,” Battani said. “The restaurant managers are ecstatic about doing this because they see it as positive for the community and positive for the sheriff’s office.”

Participating restaurants include Applebee’s, IHOP, Cracker Barrel, TGI Fridays, and Ledo Pizza.

A similar downtown event called “Hunger Games” is also being planned during the Festival of Leaves.

Despite the fundraising efforts, both Mabe and Battani repeatedly emphasized that the foundation’s real purpose is service.

“Unmet needs are really, really important,” Mabe said. “Whether it be helping somebody get a baby seat installed, helping somebody with food, or helping a child at Christmas — communication is the key.”

The organization is currently seeking volunteers, additional board members, and community support.

“We need boots on the ground,” Battani said. “If a person really wants to help the sheriff’s office and sees that the foundation is something they’d like to be involved in, absolutely.”

More information, volunteer opportunities, and donation details are available at WCVSOFoundation.org.

Town Talk, sponsored by National Media Services, Inc., is a Royal Examiner series that introduces you to local entrepreneurs, business owners, nonprofit leaders, and public officials who help shape Warren County. Conversations cover a wide range of topics about our community and the people making a difference.