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Chefs To Lend Skills At Annual DEA Fundraiser
By: Lily Jamali
Source: NY1.com


Three local celebrity chefs will lend their fame to a good cause next week as they help raise money for a fund that supports the families of drug enforcement agents who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty. NY1's Lily Jamali filed the following report.

Josh Hatcher was just three years old when his father, Everett, was gunned down during an undercover drug deal on Staten Island.
The year was 1989. Everett Hatcher was working as an agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
"My family and I went through a very difficult time and it's something that happened very suddenly," Hatcher said.
After Everett Hatcher's death, his colleagues organized golf outings to raise money for Josh, his mom, and his older brother, Zach. Over the next half dozen years, 19 other agents died in the line of duty -- five in the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building alone. Each time their colleagues raised money for families left behind.
Finally, 12 years ago, they created the Survivor's Benefit Fund to help support families of DEA agents who lose their lives doing their job. Today, within 24 hours of an agent's death, the fund, known as the SBF, pays $20,000 to the agent's spouse plus $10,000 for each child. It also pays to educate the agent's children.
The fund has supported 45 families since it began and is currently helping to put 14 kids through college.
"A lot of people don't really understand the risks that DEA agents put themselves in," Hatcher said. "The sacrifices not only they're making, but their families are making. And when a tragedy such as my father's happens, it's just a way of giving back to those families who have lost so much and sacrificed so much."
"The sad fact is that in most cases, these men and women who are killed in the line of duty are very young. They leave behind very young families. Someone has to ensure that they're taken care of and that's pretty much what our mission is," said DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Nicholas J. Caruso.
On October 16, for the second year in a row, celebrity chefs Mario Batali, and Lidia and Joe Bastianich will cook up a fundraiser at Del Posto Restaurant in Chelsea with proceeds benefitting the very same fund that helped put Josh and his brother through college.
Today, his brother is a special agent with the U.S. Department of Defense and Josh works in drug enforcement -- something he says he considers an honor, especially in light of his father's sacrifice.
"It makes going to work everyday that much more meaningful," Hatcher said.