Students Fundraise for Fallen Officer, Firefighter Families

A school coffee drive would normally be a small neighborhood story. But this one landed in the middle of fresh grief across Chicago. Students at Saint Patrick High School used the opening day of their student-run Brother Joe’s Café drive-thru to raise money for the families of Chicago Police Officer John Bartholomew and Chicago Firefighter Michael Altman, with all proceeds going to them. Cars backed up outside the Northwest Side campus, and the point was bigger than coffee — it was a public act of solidarity while two first-responder families were still reeling. (blockclubchicago.org) ### What exactly did the students do? They took a business-class project and turned it into a fundraiser. Brother Joe’s Café is a student-run coffee shop inside Saint Patrick, and for its first drive-thru event, students sold coffee and refreshments with 100% of opening-day proceeds dedicated to the two families. That made the event feel practical and immediate — not just a memorial, but cash support. (blockclubchicago.org) ### Why these two families? Because both losses were recent and hit Chicago hard. Michael Altman, a Chicago firefighter and EMT, died in March after he was injured battling an apartment fire in Rogers Park. John Bartholomew, a Chicago police officer, was shot and killed on April 25, 2026, after a robbery suspect opened fire at Swedish Hospital while being prepared for a CT scan. Another officer was seriously wounded. (nbcchicago.com) ### Why did this school take it on? Part of it was personal. One student involved in the fundraiser, Rocco Moroko, said the idea came naturally, and reports noted that his brother is a Chicago firefighter. Saint Patrick also already had the café running through its business incubator program, so students had a ready-made way to turn sympathy into something useful. Basically, they had both the motive and the mechanism. (blockclubchicago.org) ### Why did the drive-thru matter? Because people showed up. Reports described long lines of cars outside the school, which turned the fundraiser into a visible community response rather than a quiet donation link. That kind of turnout matters for grieving families — it signals that support is broad, local, and immediate. (cbsnews.com)Bartholomew’s family has drawn support from local businesses and community fundraisers, including T-shirt sales and bar events. Altman’s family has also seen a citywide wave of donations and tributes, with one fundraiser topping $300,000. So the school event was one piece of a much larger civic response. (wgntv.com)nate so much? Because it flips the usual script. First responders are the people communities expect to show up in a crisis. Here, students stepped in for them. And they did it in a way that felt grounded — making drinks, directing cars, donating sales — which is probably why the story traveled beyond the school itself. (fox32chicago.com)What’s the bigger picture here? Chicago is still processing two line-of-duty deaths that happened just weeks apart. In that context, a school fundraiser becomes more than a nice gesture. It shows how grief moves outward — from families, to coworkers, to neighborhoods, to students who may not have known either man personally but still felt responsible to help. (nbcchicago.com) ### Bottom line This was a coffee sale, but really it was a community relay. Two first responders died. Their families needed help. And a group of high school students found a simple way to get the city to show up.