A Perrysburg barbecue restaurant is inviting northwest Ohio to eat for a cause this weekend, hosting a fundraiser from Friday, October 30 through Sunday, November 1 for the family of Clay Township Police Department Sgt. Jacob Roesler, who died in a crash while responding to a call earlier this month, according to the event announcement from Dickey’s Barbecue Pit via RestaurantNews.com.
The fundraiser runs each day from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, 10413 Fremont Pike in Perrysburg. The restaurant is owned and operated by Steve Mowery, a U.S. Army combat veteran and a deputy sheriff, according to the announcement.
"Being in police and using the badge, individuals you serve together with become more than colleagues. It is a brotherhood and sisterhood that exceeds the badge," Mowery said in the Dickey’s announcement via RestaurantNews.com. "We can show his family that they do not have to face the days ahead alone. That’s what this is about. Coming together, beyond the badge, and doing what we can for a family that is going through the unimaginable."
Mowery said in the announcement that nothing can fill the space Sgt. Roesler leaves, and that the restaurant is proud to use barbecue to bring people together in his honor so his family knows the community will remember him and stand with them.
Clay Township is in Ottawa County, east of Perrysburg across the Wood County line, and its officers patrol alongside the sheriff’s offices, state patrol troopers and municipal departments that cover the Toledo metro’s eastern communities. Fundraisers like this one are a familiar way those neighboring communities show up for a fallen officer’s family in the first weeks after a line-of-duty death.
Residents who want to take part simply visit the Perrysburg restaurant during the fundraiser hours across the three days. No ticket or registration was listed in the announcement.
The event closes Sunday, November 1 at 9 p.m. Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, founded in Dallas in 1941, is the world’s largest barbecue franchise concept, according to the company information in the announcement.