The recent deaths of Denver police officer Celina Hollis and Englewood officer Jeremy Bitner made the Ride 4 Cops fundraising tour stops in Denver and Golden especially timely.

“There is no better way to honor fallen police officers than supporting the loved ones they leave behind,” said Colorado Attorney General John W. Suthers, who spoke on the Capitol steps in Denver July 18 as part of the event.

Ride 4 Cops is a nonprofit organization founded by former police officer and homicide detective Harry Herington.

He organizes motorcycle rides to state capitols across the country, to help raise awareness and funds to benefit family of police officers killed in the line of duty.

“Today, we’re here for the heroes who fell,” he said at the state Capitol.

Herington, who is CEO of the company NIC, headquartered in Olathe, Kan., said officers with whom he worked in Texas and Kansas often said to him, “If anything happens to me, take care of my family. He said the responsibility of keeping that promise should extend beyond a partner or a department to include whole communities. To accomplish that, he founded Ride 4 Cops in 2009.

Herrington said the Colorado portion of his fundraising trip had raised $5,600, all of which will go toward helping the families of Colorado officers killed in the line of duty.

As part of the Capitol press conference, Herington handed over a check to a representative from the Colorado chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors, Inc. (C.O.P.S.) for them to use and distribute.

Then Herington, driving a custom Harley Davidson decorated with police memorabilia, led a motorcycle procession of more than 40 bikes to the Colorado Law Enforcement Memorial site, at Camp George West near Golden.

There, a moment of silence was observed for the 271 officers who have lost their lives in the state. After the ceremony, Herington turned around and hugged Officer Bitner’s widow. Bitner was struck and killed in May by a drunk driver while he was out of his patrol car on a traffic stop.

Hollis was shot in the head in June while trying to break up a fight during the City Park Jazz Fest.