HEGINS, Pa. — Seargent Matthew Dillman has been a police officer in Northumberland and Schuylkill Counties for 20 years. Thirteen of those years were spent serving the people of Mount Carmel.
"He's there whenever an officer needs help in this county, in Schuylkill County, he's just a phone call away," Rick Wilson said.
Currently, Dillman works full-time at the Hegins Police Department and part-time as an officer in Ashland and at the Schuylkill County Sheriff's Department.
But recently, the 42-year-old policeman, husband, and father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He's been traveling back and forth to New Jersey weekly for treatments and is unable to work.
"He would do anything for anybody, and that's why we're stepping up to do what we can for him and his family now that he's going through all these treatments," Wilson said.
Rick Wilson is Vice President of the North Schuylkill chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, where Dillman serves as president.
"Everybody in our organization is stepping up and doing what they can do to help him out," Wilson said.
It's not just the FOP that's been helping Dillman. Police and fire departments from all over Northumberland and Schuylkill Counties are raising money.
"The online donations, we're doing raffles. The spaghetti dinner this Sunday at Groody's Catering Hall in Ashland," Wilson said.
That spaghetti dinner is from noon to 5 p.m. and will have basket raffles. All proceeds go to Dillman and his family.
"He's been the glue that holds everything together. Everybody knows that we can count on him. We're going to be here now when he needs us," Wilson said.