We are dedicated to thanking law enforcement across the country.
In 2014, our President, Liz Gerads, recognized the dwindling morale among law enforcement officers after talking with some friends. She knew something needed to change.
Did you know that if we wrote 27 thank you notes per day for a year we could send one to every law enforcement officer in Minnesota? We did the math!
Help us out!
Our Mission & History
In 2014, our President, Liz Gerads, recognized the need to boost morale among law enforcement officers after several officers she talked to said they rarely received a simple “thank you”. After a conversation with Vice President Lisa DePasquale, they came up with the idea to collect thank you notes to distribute to law enforcement officials.
A simple project to gather 200 notes for local officers soon turned into 8,000 notes to distribute throughout the State of Minnesota, then across the nation.
With the positive feedback, Operation Thank an Officer was born.
Our Purpose
Since our inception in 2014, we’ve added a number of programs to our organization. The core of who we are is simply thanking law enforcement officers. We do this by writing, collecting, and mass distributing thank you notes across the country.
In 2015, we learned that law enforcement agencies were having a hard time recruiting new officers. As a result, we started a scholarship program to support students entering the law enforcement field. We’ve since expanded that to include students of law enforcement families and many others. To date, we’ve gifted over $20,000 to students.
We’ve also been able to help law enforcement families going through times of crisis as well as provide local law enforcement agencies with gear they otherwise aren’t able to purchase.
Liz Gerads
President
Liz Gerads is a fundraiser, speaker and advocate. She has been involved with non-profit organizations for over 10 years. Liz began her career in Washington, D.C. and has served on the Board of Directors for the National Eating Disorders Association, Minnesota Youth for Life and On Angels Wings of Minnesota. Along with Vice President, Lisa DePasquale, Liz had the idea of creating a non-profit dedicated to showing law enforcement appreciation and helping law enforcement families and lives by the motto, “What more can I do?”
Lisa DePasquale
Vice President
Lisa De Pasquale is a political and culture columnist and the author of The Social Justice Warrior Handbook (political humor), I Wish I Might (novel) and Finding Mr. Righteous (memoir). She’s a frequent guest on Fox News and Fox Business. In 2010, she was named a “Rising Star” by Campaigns & Elections magazine in their annual list of top political leaders under 35. In 2016, she founded Bright, a daily email for women that focuses on culture, lifestyle, and national news.
Jon Larson
Director of Technology
Jon is a cyber security engineer that focuses on securing organizations of all sizes. He’s helped secure organizations of every kind, including public schools in Minnesota. Growing up, he enjoyed volunteering in the community and was always looking for ways to introduce technology to help expand the organizations reach.
Pat Neaton
Secretary / Treasurer
Pat is a founding partner of Neaton and Puklich, PLLP. Pat graduated cum laude from the University of Minnesota where he served as Managing Editor of the law review. Pat has a diverse litigation practice primarily focusing on the areas of employment, business, construction and condemnation law. Pat has been an active member of the Lions Club for 40 years, has been the attorney coach for Watertown-Mayer’s Mock Trial team for 23 years.