Salem MA Police Use Merchandise Sales to Aid Local Family

SALEM — From communication devices for children with special needs to an adult stroller for a Salem family in need, the Salem Police Department is there to get the job done.

Matthew Scanlan, who lives in an adult care facility in Ipswich while his family lives on Settlers Way in Salem, was the recent recipient of a stroller paid for with money raised by Salem police officers through merchandise sales.

Scanlan, 29, has had cerebral palsy from birth, when he was born 16 weeks premature.

“Matt was born at 24 weeks and one day, premature, and as a result, he had brain damage which caused cerebral palsy,” said mother Stephanie Scanlan. “The problem is that he’s confined to a wheelchair. He has a power chair and a manual chair.

“I don’t have a vehicle that can accommodate that, so when he has appointments — medical appointments in Boston — the van, if it’s available, will meet me in Boston,” Stephanie Scanlan continued. “And if it’s a wheelchair van, I’ll take him to the appointments.”

But the van the family relies on, which is tied to the facility Matthew stays at, has come to be unreliable. It’s broken down at times, and other times would surprise users with a lift that... just wouldn’t lift.

“Once we got to Boston and the lift didn’t work,” Stephanie Scanlan said. “So we’d be stuck in the middle of the winter, with it blowing like crazy, trying to get him off the van.”

The family recently began searching for means to pay for an adult stroller — a much lighter method of transport with a price tag of $2,700. Insurance wouldn’t cover it however, with the family already having two much heavier chairs at their disposal.

“We started looking for funding sources and things,” Matthew’s mother said. “It’s like $3,000 for a therapeutic stroller, and I wasn’t working during COVID, so it was a financial burden. We just hit a dead-end.”

Enter the Salem police. Family friend Diana LaMontagne talked with her daughter, Salem police mental health clinician Danielle Csogi, who was able to talk about the need with her uniformed colleagues.

“When I was at work one day, I was talking with Officer Edward Pierce. he’s a member of the police union,” Csogi said. “I was talking about Stephanie’s situation, and he said, ‘We’re going to take care of that.’”

There wasn’t even a second thought, Csogi said.

“Eric (Gagnon, a lieutenant) came back to me and was like, ‘We’re absolutely going to do this,’” Csogi said.

The union covered the stroller through its merchandise sales — particularly challenge coins and themed patches bearing the Salem police logo and some sort of design to match an event or holiday.

The patch sales have generated funds that have gone toward multiple areas of need since the vending machine first appeared in the department’s lobby off Margin Street. The department also runs a vendor booth during each year’s Haunted Happenings season, where patches and other merchandise are very popular.

Twice now, the department has invested several thousand dollars into devices for the Northshore Education Consortium, Gagnon said. That included 11 fully stocked kits containing Apple iPads and accessories in 2021, and another 13 kits issued to “kids that needed ‘em” more recently.

“Last year, we made just over $80,000 worth of donations, most of them being the small things — Christmas presents to families, to certain individuals in the community we did Market Basket gift cards,” Gagnon said. “I believe we’ve assisted with electric bills, things that officers identify and come to us saying, ‘this person could use a little help that might boost them ahead.’”

Gagnon noted that officers also still contribute out of pocket for different charitable efforts as well. The fundraising efforts, he said, “have been very successful, and we’re happy we’re able to do it.”

As for that adult stroller, Salem officers planned something special to deliver it.

To bring the stroller home, the Police Department recently transported Matthew Scanlan to Salem without his family knowing. They brought him to the nearby Bentley Academy Innovation School, where a procession was coming together to celebrate and deliver the gift.

It was May 13, a Mother’s Day that Stephanie Scanlan said she’ll never forget.

“Stephanie had no idea what was going on,” Diana LaMontagne said.

The department, with Csogi and others who helped with the effort, rallied at Bentley and drove Matthew Scanlan and his new stroller the roughly 600 feet from Bentley’s parking lot to the family’s front door.

“This has given us new life,” Stephanie Scanlan said. “He couldn’t visit family. He can visit family now. I can even take him to the Willows.”

“We just recognize that there isn’t always a charity that fits everything,” Gagnon said. “The little things that help... sometimes, it’s tough for the little things to hit a big charity. ... The little things we know mean a lot to people, so we see a lot of little things.”