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August 1, 2025 13 mins
Dana sits down with William from the 100 Club to talk about their powerful mission—providing support to the families of fallen and critically injured law enforcement officers and firefighters.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
When I drive around, I am so proud of my
one hundred Club decal, one of my favorite organizations helping
out our law enforcement and our firefighters. And they have
a huge raffle coming up. Talk about driving around in
a sweet ride. We've got the president and CEO, William
Skeen to tell us more. I have to tell you, you know,
I love the one hundred Clubs so much. And I

(00:22):
was on your Facebook just looking at the history of
the one hundred Club and all that has been done,
and it was just what it did start out five
men years ago who just wanted to show love and
support to our men and women in blue. And you
have expanded so much. Tell us what you're doing now
with the one hundred Club. I mean, it's so much
more than it was when it started.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah. Absolutely. We started out just taking care of the
families of Houston police officers. Since then, there's been a
great need to assist other first responders. So now we're
since nineteen fifty three, we've now expanded to thirty two
cannies around Houston. Every piece officer, every firefighter, every federal
rel agent, we cover them and in statewide coverage, we
provide assistance to DPS troopers anywhere in Texas. Texas Game

(01:09):
wardens in all two hundred and fifty four counties, TABC
agents and Texas and Southwestern Cattle Rangers. We cover them
anywhere in Texas. So that's what we do for line
of duty death, serious injury, helping them and their families.
But we've also expanded in two years ago to life
protecting equipment. We buy body armor and trauma kits and helmets,

(01:29):
anything to keep our officers saved. We look at that.
We've bought rescue boats and deployed here in Houston for
the fire Department, Sheriff's department, police department, So we do
that as well. We do our Heroes Awards every year
where we celebrate exceptional firefighting and police endeavors. And then
we've moved into we're doing a raffle coming up here
to help raise funds to go back to our programs

(01:52):
as well.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Absolutely, and we're going to talk about that raffle because boy,
has that thing become so successful and it's so much fun. Also,
are helping out with canines.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yes, yeah, so we looked at you again. We started
out just with Houston Police, slowly expanded where there's a need,
we go. We We've grown our memberships, so we've grown
our mission. So not only do we cover officers, firefighters,
but service animals, service dogs, police canines, search and rescue canines.
We even bought a horse that was for Texas DPS.

(02:23):
They had a horse that was killed on the border.
We bought a replacement horse for that as well. We've
bought a couple of replacement canines for area police agencies
as well, so we do that as well.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
And the thing that a lot of people don't realize
you've cut the one hundred club board of directors is
made up of so many sympathetic, amazing people who will
actually go to the home of the officer's family who
died in the line of duty or the firefighter and
you do a needs assessment, tell us about that.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yeah, that's you know, We've got a great board of directors,
as you know, and we will go when the time
when when there's a need for a lot of duty death,
when we're there with the family myself, when the directors
will go, we'll present that original twenty thousand dollars check
to them for immediate needs, and then we go back
about a month or so later when the family's ready
and do that needs assessment that we talked about. And

(03:15):
what we do there is sit down and look at
the whole financial picture of that family, because every first
responder family is different. Some have certain needs, some don't,
But we look at paint whatever that family's specific needs are,
paying off the mortgage, paying off the cars, paying off
credit card debt, setting aside funds for the college. You know,
we've done you know, unfortunately that numbers over two hundred

(03:36):
families that we've had to do that for. But we've
been able to sit down there, thanks to our membership,
to sit down there and make those families debt free
when we're when we're when we leave that family, and
that way they don't have to worry about money and
losing their home or losing the car. They can focus
on healing, you know, the worst day in their lives.
That's the least we can do is go in there

(03:57):
and help them with that financial burden to or that
from them.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, and let's talk about education for the kids, because
I know the one hundred Club is big about these
kids getting to college, pursuing their dreams, many of them
criminal justice and the law.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Oh, absolutely so. Uh, every every spring and fall, we
have another group of survivors, kids that are going to
college and we're paying for apartments and laptops and and
they're doing everything from formal education. We've got kids right
now that are going to Universal Technical Institute to become mechanics,
to become alignment, you know, whatever career path they want
to go into. We have fun set aside to assist

(04:36):
them as well during their during their during that phase
of their lives.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, that's just incredible. And and with the one hundred Club,
you also have these fundraisers and one of them is
the most fun one and I've been a part of
picking the winners. Tell us about this raffle that has
just grown. It was just kind of like an idea
several years ago, and you had no idea how big

(05:00):
this would be for the one hundred Club's fundraising.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
No, exactly. You know, our number one thing is membership,
those folks that have this sticker, the one hundred dollars members,
the lifetime members, that's our number one thing. We used
to do golf tournaments and that was very difficult to
get everybody there, the weather and it was kind of
a you know it's kind of a hit or miss thing,
if you will. So we had the idea about five
years ago, let's do a rifle see if someone would
buy a raffle ticket to help our heroes. And I

(05:23):
think we did two hundred and fifty tickets the first
time and it was successful. Then we did five hundred
tickets and a thousand tickets, and we've slowly elevated our prizes.
We've been doing a ranger and an electric buggy and
some memberships beyond that. So this year we said, well
it's been very successful, let's raise more money to get
back to our local heroes. So this year we're going

(05:43):
to do a twenty twenty five jeep Wrangler and we're
gonna sell three thousand tickets. We're going to kick it
off in about a week and we're gonna kick it
off August sixth, and we're going to draw the winter
November six So somebody's gonna win a twenty twenty five
jeep Wrangler. The MSRP is about thirty eight thousand.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
Dollars, but it's a one hundred club edition deep rangler, right, It's.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
A hundred club edition with a big one hundred club
stick on the back of the wind.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Exactly as the way it should be now. I know
you've changed your levels as well. I mean, we've got
the traditional one hundred decal that goes on the cars,
then you've got the lifetime member, but you've changed it
up a bit and it's gotten really successful.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
It has. You know, we kept the same one hundred
you know, one hundred club in nineteen fifty three when
we started. One hundred dollars was a lot of money then,
and we've kept that level all these years, and the
lifetime is one thousand. But last summer we launched two
new membership levels, a Diamond level membership and a Platinum
level membership, and they've been very successful. Our members have
really stepped up. With that Diamond membership, it's a five

(06:42):
thousand dollars membership and they get credit for whatever level
they're in now. So if you're currently a life member,
it's four thousand upgrade to that level. They get a
big yettie hardcoover tumblers. They get that and two tickets
Star Heroes Bank that we talked about, and then the
dime of Platinum membership is ten thousand dollars level they
get a big Yetti Cooper, four tumblers, and four tickets

(07:05):
to our Hero's Banquet that we have in May every year,
and they get a custom six hour pistol chrome would
just like the ones our officers receive at the Hero's Award.
So that's a great. Yeah, we've had great success, and
we really appreciate those that have stepped up to because
they care about these families and the money that we
raise goes right back to do what we do. In fact,

(07:25):
yesterday we met with two area law enforcement agencies that
are meeting rescue boats, body armor, tactical gear and that
will the funds we raised from this rifle will go
directly to fund those needs for these local law enforcement agencies.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
That's amazing. That's amazing. And talk a little bit about
the Hero Awards banquet because I have the honor of
m seeing that event and so I'm sitting with my
table and then up on stage. And when I say
sitting with my table, you seat us all with a
hero and their families. So we get to learn about,
you know, how did they get into this and what

(08:00):
do their kids think of dad or mom in these
amazing pursuits that they do. What is the purpose of
this Hero's banquet, and.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
That's actually my favorite night of the year, Dana. I
love the raffle, but when I get to be there
with the families of the officers the firefighters, they're chief
celebrating their accomplishments. So that actually started in nineteen fifty five,
the year after the Hundred Club was formed. They started
honoring exceptional law enforcement service back in the day, and
it slowly evolved to add more and more counties to it,

(08:29):
so we have more and more people. So it's their
peer nominated, so their brother and sister firefighters and police
officers nominate them for exceptional service. It's heroism, it's life saving.
It's pulling someone off of a bridge or out of
a burning house, or saving a citizen, or saving a
partner that was shot, or a great case work. So
they get nominated. We have a selection committee of eighteen

(08:51):
officers and eighteen firefighters and they review these and say yes,
that's worthy and that will become an award recipient. So
they come up through peer and dominated like that, they
select them. We put that banquet on. I think this
year we probably had about five hundred people there, a
great catered meal. The officers get a custom pistol for
an award. The firefighters get a custom ats, custom helmet.

(09:13):
They're there with their families. We have great photo opportunities.
They get celebrated for what they're doing every day. And
most of the officers and firefighters to this day will
tell you that's the highest those that have received that award,
that's their best award that they've ever had. To have
their family there for recognition for what they do for
us every day.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
It really is a special room filled with it's a
family of like minded people that you get to experience.
So if you do become a one hundred club member
in the Platinum or the Diamond level, you get to
kind of get an insider's view of what's going on
in these lives. And you see them come up on

(09:53):
stage and accept their award, and they are amazing people
and so humble. It never ceases to amaze me how
humble these heroes are.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
And we had great feedback from our members there. This
is the first year we invited into the banquet the
Diamond and Platinum members. Great response, they all loved it.
I received letters from people, great response. They were really
appreciative of being there and seeing where their dollars go
and who it effects you're sitting there at the table
with your one hundred Club dollars or helping that family,
you're helping that officer, and so it's a great it's

(10:22):
a great connection for our members.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
It really is. So become part of this incredible raffle
that we've got going on, and it's going to start again.
How can we follow you and remind ourselves to do it?
Because every year my son forgets and I'm like, Nitch,
so give us the scoop? Where can we go?

Speaker 2 (10:38):
William? All right? So next August sixth, we're going to
kick out an email to anybody that's bought a ticket
before or is one hundred Club member. They're going to
get the first crack at it. So we're going to
send out an email and then there'll be a postcard
and then we'll open up general public. But go to
our website, the one hundred Club dot org. There'll be
a pop up there where they can go to it,

(11:00):
follow us on Facebook, Instagram and you can follow it
in the link on it there. And then we're actually
going to have the jeep. We're going up after this
to go shoot a video with it and that people
like to be in the lobby of the Demontron jeep
dealership in Conrod, Texas, and there'll be a QR code
with the billboard on it in there. So if you're
in there, get your jeep serviced or want to pop

(11:20):
in there and buy a ticket QR code on the
jeep and hopefully you'll be the one winning at January sixth,
I mean November sixth, and go to our website. It's
got everything about the one hundred Club, how to become
a member, what we do. The Heroes Award photos are
on there and the raffle ticket will pop up. We'll
be on there, so click on it and buy a ticket.
I hope you win.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
That's excellent, and become a one hundred Club member now
before the raffles so you can be notified that it's
about to happen.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
I see right, get the first. You'll be at the
first crack at it. So you have to go to
the way. If you're not a member, now go to
our website. Look at it. There's an easy way to
join on there. We have a lot of different options
and for those upper levels we do quarterly payments on those.
But if you're not a member to look at it
when you see what we do and the impact we've had.
We've given away over fifty million dollars to help the police,

(12:07):
officers and firefighters. We're the biggest Hunter club of the nation.
We have the smallest staff, so we're very proud of
that fact that the money that you give goes right
back to these folks.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
William the most proud I was when I reached my
lifetime membership, got my decal that I have proudly on
my car, and when it wears out, you guys send
me another one when I asked, and my kids all
have their one hundred Club decals too. It just makes
you feel so proud when you're driving around town showing
your support for our first responders, and it means a lot.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Again, I was a retired officer. When I was an officer,
When I saw that, it meant something to me and
my family knowing that those folks cared enough about the
career I was doing and my family to join that
hundred Club and support support what they're doing every day.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
So thank you, William, Thank you so much. It's going
to be fun. Good luck to the winner the one
hundred club dot. You can find out all the details there.
William take care and we'll see you soon.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Thanks Dana.
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