Last Updated on June 5, 2023 by Bob Filipczak
Borderland 100 Club is dedicated to providing support to the law enforcement community and their families in El Paso County. The Homes for Heroes Foundation awarded the organization a $10,000 hero grant to assist in their mission to support our officers.
This Homes for Heroes Foundation grant is part of the Homes for Heroes Circle of Giving, providing assistance for heroes in dire need across the country.
Borderland 100 Club Interview with Jay Flynn
Homes for Heroes Outreach Coordinator, Jay Flynn, talks to Amanda Middleton, founder of the Borderland 100 Club. The organization was nominated for the grant by Paulina Logenbaugh, a Homes for Heroes real estate specialist. They are also joined by Berkeley and Margo Hatch, who benefited from one of the programs the Borderland 100 Club oversees. You can watch the full interview here or read the transcript of the interview below.
Jay: Hello and thanks for joining us today. I’m Jay Flynn, Homes for Heroes hero outreach coordinator. And I’m joined today by Amanda Middleton from the Borderland 100 Club and Paulina Logenbaugh with Homes for Heroes. She’s a Homes for Heroes real estate specialist. And I also have Officer Berkeley Hatch, along with his wife, Margo, joining us today. Guys, it’s my honor to be here today with you all.
Paulina, you’ve got a guest with you. Introduce her.
Paulina: This Lenae Logenbaugh, my sister-in-law and my business partner. She is also a law enforcement spouse.
Jay: Awesome, welcome. So as part of the Homes for Heroes Circle of Giving, the Homes for Heroes Foundation provides grants to nonprofits whose missions are to help our heroes who are in dire need.
Paulina, we are happy to present this $10,000 Home for Heroes Foundation grant to the Borderland 100 Club. Congratulations.
Amanda: We cannot tell you how much it means to our organization and, of course, to the people that benefit from those grants when they need it the most.
Jay: Awesome. All right, so let’s just talk about the Borderland 100 Club and its mission. So, Amanda, tell us about how the Borderland 100 Club got started.
Amanda: Sure thing. The Borderland 100 Club got started the way that most nonprofits do. It was someone that went through something, and they realized there was a need for it out there. In this case, that was myself. I joined the El Paso Police Department in 2011, and shortly after that, about nine months after becoming active, I lost my classmate in an on-duty accident. It was just about six months after that that I actually was involved in a solo officer fight. I had a long term injury that caused me to have my career very, very short.
And in both of those instances, I saw there was a need to help those families here in El Paso – to help the officers going through difficulties. The bottom line was that these officers go out there, and these families sacrifice so much. They sacrifice something every day. But there was no one there to pick up the pieces when they were going through it.
I was lucky enough to be able to take that step, and meet that need and I had the desire to do something about it. I had just lost my career at 27 years of age, and I was medically retired. I said my mission wasn’t done yet. Luckily I was surrounded by a bunch of people that when I said, “Hey, I want to start something to help our heroes”, they all said, “Absolutely.”
I had all the encouragement and the support that I needed to make it successful.
Jay: Wow. That’s awesome. And thank you for your service. Paulina, give us the why behind making the nomination for Borderland 100 Club for the Homes for Heroes Foundation grant.
Paulina: So to not make this totally confusing, Amanda is my best friend and Lenae is also my best friend, And like I said, my business partner. So Amanda Lenae and I (and a few other women) decided to start the Borderland 100 club. That has been our mission as volunteers for the past several years. We give back, out of our pocket, as realtors to our community, to the heroes who work with us. Naturally, it was a very organic fit for us to start this organization with Amanda.
Our organization thrives off donations from individuals, but especially businesses who believe in the mission. Really Homes for Heroes and us as representatives, embody what the Borderland 100 Club strives to do every day – giving back to our heroes through the organization. We give back to them through our real estate business. I knew the funding needs as a board member of the Borderland 100 Club. We do give out a lot of funds from Borderland 100 Club, and we’re constantly needing to replenish those funds.
For several years I’ve nominated the Borderland 100 Club to receive this grant. And finally this year we got the invitation to formally apply, which was a huge deal. We kicked it over to Amanda. She worked her magic. I firmly believe that what we do speaks for itself.
Who wouldn’t want to give money to the organization because of what we do? 100% of it goes back to our heroes. We are a volunteer-run organization, which I knew was very important for people when they give their money. Amanda wrote it up and the rest is history. We are thankful and very grateful to Homes for Heroes. We pay into the system with the reward money that gets sent to our hero clients.
And a small portion of it goes back to the foundation for Homes for Heroes. It’s been happening like that for several years. I’m sure at this point it’s amassed several thousands of dollars that have come out of our paychecks to go to Homes for Heroes. It’s really super awesome that it’s finally come to fruition, that now that money’s coming full circle back to our organization so that we can keep helping families like the Hatch’s.
Jay: Absolutely. Here at home, here we call that the Homes for Heroes Circle of Giving. So it’s come full circle, back to you guys.
Amanda, what programs do you guys all offer to our heroes there in El Paso County?
Amanda: So our main mission is that if we have any first responder that falls in the line of duty in El Paso County, their family will receive a grant from us for $10,000 within 40-48 hours of the incident. Now, of course, that is our least-used grant, thankfully, but we do have many others that are used.
One of the other ones is our line-of-duty injury grant, which helps individuals who have been injured in the course of their duties. Unfortunately, workers comp will only cover 70% of their pay after they’re out of work for 30 days, and we don’t feel that they should be punished for doing their job and getting injured.
So we supplement their paycheck with $500 a month for up to a year while they are out of work. Then we have our Family Assistance Request program. Any active or retired first responder can apply for this grant between $500 and $1,000 per month for up to a year if they’re facing any type of financial tragedy.
We believe that whenever a first responder is facing those types of financial tragedies, it affects them as a whole. So if we can help alleviate some of those stresses, it’s good for first responders and makes them better community servants. They also get the feeling that the community supports and serves them in their times of need.
So those are our missions that are our financial programs. And then we also have our peer support program. Our team is completely certified by the ICSF, and they’re all volunteer first responders from El Paso County. We serve our first responders in their mental health times of need as well as their financial times of need.
Jay: Wow. That’s awesome. Those are really, really meaningful benefits that you guys offer. Okay. So officer Hatch, Mrs. Hatch, first of all thank you guys so much for joining us today. You guys have been on the receiving end of some of the great work that Borderland 100 Club does. So can you tell us how the Borderland 100 Club has made an impact on your life?
Berkeley: Sure. I started to contribute to the Borderland 100 myself about a year and a half ago, never thinking I would be a recipient of it. But I wanted to do something right, something good for our profession and for those who may be in need. And little did I know that a year and a half later, we would be in need of it.
On December the second, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. It’s a very common breast cancer, but a very aggressive breast cancer. It’s the second most common breast cancer. She does massages to help cover some of the bills. With her diagnosis, we knew that she wouldn’t be able to do that any longer – as long as she was in treatment.
It was my pride that said we’re not going to use [help from the Borderland 100 Club]. There’s somebody out there that needs it more than us. But I was talked into it. I knew the need for it. I have four children of my own. Being the only breadwinner in the home, that support would help out immensely.
So I applied for the assistance and got it; and it’s been a huge blessing. We had my four children and we had Margo’s niece who had come into town to live with us for about eight months. She needed a little bit of direction and so we had her here with us.
So it was very, very difficult to juggle being almost-a-single parent. She was getting her treatment out of town, so she was having to fly out weekly. With five children here in the home, Borderland 100 alleviated some of that pressure and some of that stress.
We couldn’t be more grateful for the Borderland 100 Club. Amanda spearheading this is an incredible blessing. To have organizations like this, like Home for Heroes, is wonderful.
Jay: Awesome. Well, it’s wonderful that Borderland 100 was able to take that stress off your plate so you guys can focus on healing.
Everything you guys are doing is just truly awesome. If our viewers would like to learn more they can visit: Borderland 100 Club. You can donate by clicking on the donation tab there on the website. The Borderland 100 Club is a wonderful nonprofit supporting our heroes in need.
Thank you all so much for taking the time to join me today to hear more about the great work of Borderland 100 Club. Help us out by giving this video some love, or a share. Subscribe to our channel for future episodes – to learn more about some wonderful nonprofits.
Have a good day, everyone. And remember, take some time today to say thank you to a hero.
Homes for Heroes
Grants from the Homes for Heroes Foundation are made possible by the Homes for Heroes Circle of Giving and its network of real estate professionals. These professionals are committed to providing savings to groups, such as firefighters, EMTs, law enforcement, military, active and veterans, health care professionals and teachers. Thank you for watching another Homes for Heroes Foundation grant video about the impact we are making in the hero community with our nonprofit partners.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the whole series on our YouTube channel. You can learn more about the savings available to Heroes through Homes for Heroes, or you can learn more about how the Homes for Heroes Foundation is helping Heroes in dire need. Visit Homes for Heroes Foundation or simply to make a donation.
