CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — It's been one year since an exchange of gunfire outside of the Ross County Sheriff’s Office left Sgt. Eric Kocheran injured, and now, he's giving back to the community that helped him.
The Kocheran Strong Foundation held its first fundraising event, supporting local high school students, Saturday afternoon at Unioto High School’s football field.
The cornhole tournament was an effort to raise money for a cause important to Kocheran.
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"I wanted something that would make me focus on the forward and not the past and I think that this was the best thing,” Kocheran said.
Teams of local high school students who are part of drug-free clubs or programs at their schools took part in the cornhole tournament. Food trucks and craft vendors also helped in raising money for the foundation.
Kocheran said he had hopes of raising about $1,000, but to his surprise, they raised more than $2,400. All proceeds from the event will go toward covering the costs for students to be part of local high school drug-free Clubs of America programs in Ross County.
“We want to focus on Ross County the community because they stood behind me and now it's my turn to turn that back around stand back behind them, because I'll be honest with you, this community came together and they're amazing, they do amazing things," Kocheran said. "There's rotary clubs and local clubs that do so much for our community and there's still things that aren't even being touched so we want to help that as well."
For more information about Kocheran Strong events and how to donate to the foundation, visit the Kocheran Strong public Facebook page.