Hundreds of Patriots fans in Denver for Sunday’s AFC Championship will be rallying together Saturday night, with all funds raised supporting a cause in honor of a Massachusetts native killed in the line of duty a decade ago.
Each time New England travels to Denver to take on the Broncos, the “Pikes Peak Pats” fan club hosts massive parties for fans who either live in or are traveling to Colorado for the game.
Club president Anne Stone says that the rallies have raised nearly $70,000 over the past decade for the Pikes Peak Region Peace Officer Memorial Foundation, in Garrett Swasey’s name.
Swasey, a Melrose native, died at the age of 44 on Nov. 27, 2015, when a gunman shot and killed him and two other victims at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. Swasey was responding to the scene as an officer with the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs police department.
The Peace Officer Memorial Foundation honors fallen local, federal, state and military law enforcement officers.
“Our postseason fundraiser has always been for Garrett, and it will be the same [this time],” Stone told the Herald on Friday afternoon. “Why do all of this and not have something good come out of it? It’s an absolute ball.”
Stone, a Hyde Park native who moved to Colorado in 1995 with her husband, has served as president of the Patriots fan club since 2007, with members meeting up weekly to watch their favorite team.
“You can take the girl out of Boston, you can’t take Boston out of the girl,” Stone said. “That goes for all of us.”
The group has a core of 30 to 40 fans who have been with the club since it started. Its overall population has fluctuated over the years, heavily attracting military members from local bases.
Fans are slated to take over Jackson’s LODO, a sports bar and grill in downtown Denver, at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. The party will feature live broadcasts of Patriots All Access on WBZ, and appearances from Patriots cheerleaders, Pat Patriot and Gillette Stadium voice Mike “Sarge” Riley.
Former Super Bowl champions David Andrews and Adam Vinatieri will also be on hand.
“It’s a crazy kind of excitement,” Stone said. “All Patriots fans were complacent for so long. We took winning for granted, we really did, for years.”
“Who thought it would go this far?” she said of the Patriots 16-3 season.
