BackStoppers is a Greater St. Louis area charity that provides financial and emotional support to the families of public safety workers that have died while on duty. The organization makes mortgage and car payments, pays off debt, and defrays the expense of higher education. In addition, each family gets a "friend of the family" volunteer to stay in touch.

Eleven businessmen formed BackStoppers in 1959. The charity spends about $1 million annually, currently supporting 47 families, including one of an officer killed in action in 1964. The group's largest fundraiser is an annual boxing contest between firefighters and police officers known as Guns 'N Hoses. Anheuser-Busch

Anheuser-Busch

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. , is an American brewing company. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and 18 in other countries. It was, until December 2009, also one of America's largest theme park operators; operating ten theme parks across the United States through the...

, which is based in St. Louis, is the primary sponsor of the event.

Sources

• Christine Byers, Families of the fallen reflect on BackStoppers' legacy, 50 years, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  St. Louis Post-Dispatch
  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is the major city-wide newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri. Although written to serve Greater St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch is one of the largest newspapers in the Midwestern United States, and is available and read as far west as Kansas City, Missouri, as far south as...
  
  November 25, 2009.

• Ann Rubin, Guns N' Hoses event raising money for Backstoppers charity, KSDK
  KSDK
  KSDK, Channel 5, is the NBC-affiliated television station in St. Louis, Missouri. KSDK is owned and operated by Gannett Company, and the station's transmitter is located in Marlborough, Missouri. The station broadcasts a digital signal on UHF channel 35, using its former analog channel assignment...
  
   November 26, 2009.

• Anheuser-Busch, wholesalers give $83,000 to BackStoppers, St. Louis Business Journal November 23, 2009.