KCK firefighter raising funds for detective’s family with T-shirt

A Kansas City, Kan., firefighter is making a memorial T-shirt to raise funds for Detective Brad Lancaster’s family.

Robby Allen is a firefighter-paramedic out of the downtown headquarters at 815 N. 6th St., Kansas City, Kan., who also helped collect funds for the slain detective’s family in the firefighters’ boot block campaign last weekend.

“I just wanted to do something,” Allen said about the T-shirt idea.

He plans to raise about $3,000 for the family’s immediate expenses through selling T-shirts for $20 each.

He hasn’t tried to do a T-shirt before. Allen said he, his girlfriend and some firefighters were talking about how to help the detective’s family when they came up with the idea. He said his girlfriend is helping with the project, including the design.

“We went to Union Press, they did the artwork and it’s flowing from there,” Allen said.

Standing at an intersection raising funds over Memorial Day weekend, Allen said many residents were generous in donating toward the Fire Department and Local 64’s efforts to add to the fund for the detective’s family.

About half the people who responded to him while he was at an intersection already knew about the boot block fundraiser for Lancaster’s family, and the other half were used to seeing firefighters raise funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association over the Labor Day weekend, he said.

“One guy just handed us $80 when he heard it was for Lancaster’s family,” Allen said.

“We’re a small community here in Wyandotte County and we should be taking care of our own,” he said.

He said more details about the T-shirt fundraiser are on his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/robby.allen.543.