GREENSBORO, N.C. — An online store is open to honor the life and legacy of fallen Greensboro police officer Sgt. Dale nix.
The idea came from a fellow GPD officer and friend, and a shop from Pleasant Garden made it become a reality, where all of the proceeds will go to the Nix family.
Alan Hines owns Carolina Sports. It is a three-person shop that designs and makes apparel.
Following the death of Greensboro Police Officer Sergeant Dale Nix, fellow Greensboro police officer and friend, Tiffany Rahencamp, came up with an idea to honor Sgt. Nix.
"In the beginning, I got a call from Tiffany Rahencamp who is an officer on in the Greensboro police force, and she wanted to do something to help the family," said Hines. "We came up with the idea to open a store and give everybody a chance to buy the shirts and it's been overwhelming, the amount of orders is staggering right now and we love it because we're doing a good thing to help help this family in need."
Tiffany Rahencamp said that she and Sgt. Nix were both on the peer support team, being a soundbox to others who are struggling with any type of mental health, physical health, or anything in their personal and work life.
"It seemed appropriate for me as a good friend of his to reach out to his family and just return the favor," said Rahencamp. "He was not only an authentic person, but the police officer that he was, he was the type of supervisor that would delve in with his guys. He wouldn't he wouldn't delegate. He was a true leader."
Rahencamp said she wanted to raise money to support his family and surround them with as much love as possible.
"A lot of things that are done in his memory and to carry on leaves me speechless," she said. "My hope for this fundraiser is for people to be able to wear his shirt and continue to recognize him and himself for what he did during the tragic event and to continue to surround the family with love."
Hines said they opened the shop for a few days and saw great success, which is what got it to open back up for a second time.
"I ran the first site for about 10 days," said Hines. "We filled all those orders and there was so much demand so we opened it again right away. In the first week alone we had about 500 orders and that's not individual shirts, but multiple shirt orders. Right now, we're over 1000 and it just keeps on going."
"Having the support of over 1000 people wanting to represent our department, it kind of leaves you feeling numb," said Rahencamp. "There's no other way to put it because when we go on our day-to-day life, it's kind of hard sometimes to keep the morale up and in the back of my mind now knowing that people are walking around proudly wearing the shirts that say the Greensboro Police Department and be supportive Dale, it's amazing."
The plan is to have the shop open until Sunday. If the demand is up, it will remain open.