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THIN BLUE LINE COFFEE is a tiny company, but we'd like to think that we have a big heart.  We give until it hurts and then go beyond.  During this holiday season, I thought I'd share the latest example of how we give back to the LEO community.

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Dear Mr. Carl Orsi,

The annual Christmas party for Arkansas State Police personnel, retirees and their families in the Troop J area was held on Friday, December 1, 2017, in Russellville.

This was our largest attendance ever with over 130 people.

Your contribution for the door prizes helped make the evening a huge success!  Thank you for your support and I pray you and your family have a blessed Christmas season! 

Sincerely,

Dale Saffold, Captain

Troop J Commander

Our response

Hello Captain Saffold,

Thank you for letting THIN BLUE LINE COFFEE participate in your event.  Our mission is to help officers and their families in as many ways as we can and I’m glad we could be of service.  If you can find it in your hearts to help support THIN BLUE LINE COFFEE by drinking and recommending it to others, it makes it possible for us to help more LEO organizations, officers and their families in the future.  No matter, thank you for giving us the opportunity to make your event a success.

Stay safe this holiday season and in all seasons to come.

Best Regards,

Carl Orsi

THIN BLUE LINE COFFEE

www.thinbluelinecoffee.com

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From the intro image, you can see that we donated to Toys for Tots and several other LEO and LEO related organizations. 

Here's the kicker... THIN BLUE LINE COFFEE is yet to be profitable, which means that I personally reach into my pocket for each of these donations, but I do so gladly.  

I WANT TO HELP and if you're reading this blog, I believe you do also.   We donate to COPS on every sale made from this site, no exceptions.  We give to LEO organizations when we can to help with fundraisers, but in order for us to help, we need your help.  

Trust me, THIN BLUE LINE COFFEE is not some mega-corporation with the CEO considering running for president.  We are a very lean team of people who care for LEOs and their families.  Help us help others.

It took a while to get them, but K-Cup compatible coffee pods are now available to order!

Freshly roasted premium roast coffee in a pod that works with 1.0 and 2.0 brewers.  

This coffee has a great smooth flavor and a refreshing aftertaste.  Not bitter or acidic, just good.

Order them from this page

 

We will soon be offering French Roast K-Cups.  It took us a while to get the equipment and the right blend, but within a week or so we'll be offering THIN BLUE LINE COFFEE in K-Cups.  This is excellent coffee which supports a great cause.

One of the most popular sections of our Pinterest page is the Quotes section that has a growing collection of coffee quotes and images.  I think you'd like it THIN BLUE LINE COFFEE Quotes

We include free shipping on our products in the U.S. to make it easier for customers to determine the true cost of purchasing coffee on our site, unfortunately our shipping prices have risen in 2017 and we have no option but to raise our prices.  We run a very lean operation and lessening the amount we donate per item sold is not acceptable to us so in order to work towards breaking even so we can maintain this donation-driven business we find ourselves having to increase our prices. We reached this decision reluctantly and we hope that you understand and continue to give us and C.O.P.S. your support.

THANK YOU!

THIN BLUE LINE COFFEE went live at the very end of August 2016, and as expected of any new adventure, it started slow, but it has consistently grown - with your support. 

We sell great tasting coffee! Those of you who took the chance and tried it, we owe you a debt of gratitude. 

We started simply with a goal to make this "business" a convenient tool for people to donate to Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) , an organization that truly cares for all law enforcement officers and their families, and we've been successful. But we have a long way to go.  This year "we" (as in all of us who have purchased from THIN BLUE LINE COFFEE) have donated $475 to CO.P.S.  Not a huge amount, but a start!  No, we're still not profitable or even at break even, but supporting C.O.P.S. is a core tenant of this endeavor and we're determined to honor our commitment whatever the sacrifice.

In our short 4 months of existence, we've grown on Facebook, Instagram and now Pinterest. We're working hard to build recognition of our products and goals and could use your support in helping to spread the word. The more we sell, the more we donate! 

So, thank you all for your help in making this idea a reality! 

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”
― John Bunyan

On Saturday the 10th of December, 2016, I had the opportunity to attend the quarterly meeting of the Washington State Chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S).  What a heart warming meeting.  In attendance were parents, children and siblings of officers who died as a result of working in law enforcement.  To be honest, I had reservations that the meeting would be rather somber considering the topic, but it wasn't. It was a celebration of life and the desire to help others.  It emphasized to me the true loss of those officers who were being represented, because if they were anything like the family members that attended this meeting, they were certainly people I would want to have in uniform.

My takeaway from the meeting:

• C.O.P.S. is a great organization doing great things for the families of fallen officers. 
• They host retreats for the children, spouses, parents, siblings and other relatives (aunts, uncles, cousins) of fallen officers
• They officer counseling for colleagues of fallen officers.
• They offer counselling for the families of officers who commit suicide. 
• They offer training in police academies to recruits entering law enforcement to learn to separate work from home life.
• They offer training to departments on how to handle the loss of an officer and the stress on department personnel that follows.

This is an organization that works very efficiently and offers great services to those in need.  They have a 96.66 rating (out of 100) on Charity Navigator.

In the end, this meeting confirmed my decision to back them as the charity THIN BLUE LINE COFEE supports.

 

Okay, so this blog entry really doesn't help THIN BLUE LINE COFFEE but I do hope that it makes readers understand that our goal really is to help others and not shamelessly make money. 

Since it is the holiday season and people are buying tons of stuff online, I wanted to bring to everyone's attention that Amazon has a program where they will donate a portion of each purchase to a charity the YOU designate (from their list of charities).  The percentage they donate is 0.5% but multiply that times thousands and millions of purchases and it adds up. 

You must sign up to have your purchases linked to a charity.  The address is:

http://smile.amazon.com/

It is pretty simple to sign up and designate a charity.  Then, when you want to purchase something from Amazon you must login through the smile.amazon.com link.

State chapters of Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) are listed as charities on the site.  I chose the Washington State chapter to donate to, but you can choose whatever charity you want and can find on the site.

I have plans to sell THIN BLUE LINE COFFEE through Amazon, but it is not currently available there now - you can only buy it from this site at this time.

Bottom Line:  This is the 'Season of Giving' so I hope you find it in your heart to take the time to designate a charity on Amazon and use smile.amazon.com to make online purchases.  It costs you nothing but your time.