WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — A Boston-based charity Sunday joined a local boy's battle against cancer.

 

For more than 20 years, Cops for Kids with Cancer has been raising money and supporting families of children living with childhood cancer throughout New England.

 

On Sunday, Kevin Calnan, a retired State Police officer and member of the Cops for Kids with Cancer Board of Directors, visited the home of Richard Rubio Andrade, 5, and his family to present a check for $5,000.

 

Calnan was joined by members of the Williamstown Police Department, including Chief Michael Ziemba and K-9 Shelby, who was a main attraction for Richard and his siblings.

 

Ziemba said the Rubio Andrade family was recommended to his office by a community member, and the WPD sent an application to Cops for Kids with Cancer.

 

"We do anything we can to support [the charity] in any way that we can," Ziemba said."Typically, most of their fund-raising is done out east because they're based out in the Boston area. But we follow them and we assist in any way we can.

 

"I was involved with [a presentation] probably seven or eight years ago for another child in Pittsfield. That's why when Bridget [Spann] reached out, I said, 'Absolutely, we'd love to sponsor the family.'"

 

Calnan said the charity is able to make similar presentations to families eight times each month because of its successful fund-raising efforts.

 

"At the marathon [Monday], we have 110 runners who are running in the marathon either through the Massachusetts State Police and Boston Police running teams and also through the Cops for Kids with Cancer running teams," Calnan said. "Some of those are $10,000 sponsors, and some of them are $1,000 sponsors. But we expect to earn over $100,000 from the Boston Marathon runners."

 

Sports were part of the charity's genesis. It grew out of a golf rivalry between the Boston Police Department and the national police service in Ireland, according to the Cops for Kids with Cancer website.

 

Starting in 2002, the group raised funds for the pediatric oncology units at Boston-area hospitals. In 2008, it broadened its reach to benefit individual families — at first in Massachusetts and now around the region.

 

In addition to supporting families fighting difficult and expensive battles against a life-threatening illness, the charity, in more recent years, helps to build connections between police and the communities they serve, Calnan said.

 

"By involving the local department that does it, it gets our word out there and also helps them with the job they're doing with the community," he said."They're here with this family, but other people are watching. The blinds are being pulled back. People are asking, 'What's 5-0 doing here?'

 

"It's always good to build community relations, because that's what you do."

 

Learn more about Cops for Kids with Cancer here.