Richmond business raises $37,000 for Officer Daniel Ellis’ family

Shortly after Richmond Police Officer Daniel Ellis died, Surge Promotions, Inc., a custom printing store in Richmond, wanted to do something to honor him.

The company’s graphic designer along with a former employee, who is also a police officer’s wife, designed a logo to put on a t-shirt that would honor Officer Ellis’ memory.

“The left chest of the shirt it’s ‘end of watch’ and that was the day he passed and his badge number 457 and gone but not forgotten,” Sales and Marketing Manager Casey McKean described the logos on the shirt.

Surge promotions initially printed about 300 shirts and moments after they announced those shirts were on sale, there was a line out this door. Within about an hour, those 300 shirts were gone.

“We were selling as fast as we could print them. We were pulling them off our press and giving them out to people immediately. It was incredible,” McKean said.

Each time the store announced it was printing a new batch of shirt, another line formed outside the store.

“Everyone we talked to had an amazing thing to say about him and was heartbroken,” McKean said.

Surge Promotions will now be giving 100% of the proceeds from those shirts to Officer Ellis’ family in the amount of $37,000.

“It’s more than we could have ever expected. The amount of support we had from the community was absolutely overwhelming and it was humbling to us to see the community rally together like they did,” McKean said.