Great American Warrior: Shelley Klingerman, Honoring Her Brother’s Legacy to Help the LEO Community
Shelley Klingerman, our partner Trudy Jacobson’s next Great American Warrior, is the Executive Director for Project Never Broken, a nonprofit organization serving the Law Enforcement Community.
There are countless nonprofit organizations in America that perform a variety of functions and services.
The founders of these nonprofit organizations have their own reasons for pursuing such a noble cause. Most often, the founders have always had a sense of civic duty to help others in need and found a way to give back to their community.
Every once in a while, however, some start a nonprofit organization because they feel they have no other choice. They were forced into it by some type of personal tragedy.
And that is Shelley Klingerman’s story.
Shelley’s brother, Greg Ferency was a 30-veteran law enforcement officer and an FBI Task Force officer who was senselessly murdered. As he exited his FBI building, he was allegedly confronted by a crazed suspect intent on harming him and attacking the FBI. The suspect reportedly threw a Molotov cocktail at the building and then shot Greg.
Greg was able to return fire and wound the suspect, and responding agents quickly apprehended him. However, Greg unfortunately succumbed to his wounds. The trial is set to begin this March.
A Family Tragedy
Shelley’s life turned upside down that day. And the following days and weeks were complete turmoil.
“It’s hard to wrap your mind around why. It’s hard to come to closure, especially when the case is open. But I just quickly found myself… I think everybody goes through grief differently, but I was just finding myself swinging from extreme sadness to just being mad as hell… in extreme anger. And those swings are really difficult,” Shelley told LET in an exclusive interview.
She knew that the cycle would be unhealthy and may lead to a destructive pattern. So she found a way out of it – by starting a nonprofit organization.
“I kind of knew the process and it was really, truly the way to channel some of that energy into something positive and really being intentional about making something good come out of something that was just so evil and senseless,” she said. “It’s 100% been my grieving process because it gives you something to do that you feel is bringing meaning, purpose.”
And the nonprofit organization Project Never Broken was created.
“The organization’s mission is to boldly support law enforcement through hope, help, and healing while honoring the resiliency of humanity,” she said. “It was really important for us to rally behind those that are continuing to protect that very, very thin blue line now. They always take care of everyone else.”
Shelley and Project Never Broken have already organized and participated in several functions aimed at helping law enforcement officers and their families as well as educating members of the public about the challenges of police work.
“We always ask our speakers to do a session for our law enforcement, and we also ask them to do one for our public because we really want the public to start getting an idea of the other side of policing,” she said.
Shelley wants to remind everyone in law enforcement that there is strength in asking for help. She wants people to know that’s why Project Never Broken is there. In fact, this help isn’t only available to law enforcement professionals, but to family as well.
“The spouses just don’t always understand what their officer is going through because the officers don’t want to bring that into their own families. Often they’re dealing with the underbelly of society and they want to leave that of their own home,” Shelley said.
She continued, “So when they come home, they will kind of barrier themselves or put a silo so that it doesn’t come into their home. But that also, unfortunately, creates a silo sometimes with communication with your spouse.”
Project Never Broken has offered workshops to help law enforcement families connect and communicate. And they’ve been quite helpful to both many families and individual officers.
They are also researching and implementing ways for law enforcement officers to seek help without going through insurance and, hence, not having it formally going through the official channels. The goal is to eliminate any reasons for an officer to seek help.
Shelley’s Calling
Project Never Broken is a growing nonprofit organization that is helping more and more officers and their families. Although Shelley is a career woman with a full-time job, helping others with Project Never Broken is her true calling and passion.
As she continues to listen and learn about the law enforcement profession, she is becoming more in tune with what our needs are. And instead of shying away from the complexity of the profession, Shelley is stepping up and looking for ways to help out.
And she wants you to know she is there for you.
“And I think that’s also a different mind shift because they’re [police officers] just so used to taking care of everyone else that they neglect themselves and there’s nothing selfish about taking care of yourself. It’s actually becoming like the responsible thing to do,” she said.
And if you want to take care of yourself, start with Project Never Broken.
For more information, to help, or donate, go to https://projectneverbroken.org/
