In October 2015, Forest Acres Police Department veteran officer Greg Alia was fatally shot while trying to apprehend a suspect at a local mall. Fueled by grief, Kassy, his wife, found purpose in her pain through forming Serve and Connect. Here, Kassy stands with her son Sal, age 9, at the SC Law Enforcement Officers Memorial at the State House. Kassy married Mitch Ray, and in 2020, their family grew with the addition of son Silas. Mitch also adopted Sal in 2022.
Kassy Alia stood motionless outside St. Joseph Catholic Church as she listened to the surreal sound of a bagpipe and of raindrops hitting the sidewalk. Something was unusual about the rain that October afternoon in 2015. It began falling the previous evening at her husband’s wake and persisted through the service at St. Joseph’s at 11 a.m. The rain may seem a strange thing to notice at your husband’s funeral. Still, it arrived so sympathetically that it seemed almost sublime.
That Wednesday, Kassy had been getting Sal, her 6-month-old son, ready for the day when her dog started barking at the door. The sun was just cresting the trees when the sheriff and police chief arrived on her front step and informed her that her husband, Greg, had been killed. He was fatally shot while trying to apprehend a suspect at the local mall. On the day of the funeral, the men who stood on Kassy’s doorstep gathered with more than 400 officers from across the state to pay their respects to their fallen brother who had served for seven years at the Forest Acres Police Department.
Kassy watched as the flag-draped casket neared the front steps of the church. Her heart raced, but her body remained still under the shelter of a black umbrella. Friends, family, and news cameras watched Kassy’s steady stance as the pallbearers approached. Then suddenly, Kassy stepped out from the umbrella and into the rain.
This was just one of many brave steps Kassy would take — steps that would lead her out of comfortable, safe spaces and into a world pulsing with pain. In 2015, the news frequently covered stories of officer-involved shootings, and divisive narratives mounted across the country. Kassy wondered if Greg’s service and sacrifice were truly valued or if he would simply become a tally mark etched in time. Her husband was more than a statistic, and deep down, she knew that the man who killed her Greg was more than a statistic, too.
Through her tears and in the pouring rain, Kassy pressed her palms on top of her Greg’s casket and promised to find purpose in all this pain. The heavens released a deluge across the state for four days straight, resulting in South Carolina’s historic thousand-year flood.
Watching Ripples
A few months before his death, Kassy asked Greg for his thoughts about the growing tensions between police and community. “Kassy,” Greg thoughtfully replied, “for every negative story you hear in the news, thousands of positive stories are happening every day that go unnoticed.” These words inspired Kassy’s 3 a.m. Facebook post the day after Greg was killed. She had two requests: for people to tell stories of Greg that she could share with Sal when he was older and to use the hashtag #heroesinblue to raise awareness of the positive interactions that police officers have in their communities — to tell the stories that so often go untold.
#Heroesinblue posts started dropping into Kassy’s newsfeed, creating ripples across social media. Eventually, those ripples grew into a massive wave of a movement to spread awareness of police engaging in compassionate and courageous acts around the country. As a result, Kassy launched the nonprofit Heroes in Blue with a simple mission — promote positive police and community relationships and support fallen officers’ families and colleagues.
One of the organization’s first efforts included the Feed an Officer campaign. Donations provided lunch to police officers on Greg and Kassy’s wedding anniversary. In the first year, 210 officers across 14 police stations were fed. Heroes in Blue also launched a tragedy response program to provide support for families of South Carolina police officers killed in the line of duty. But as Kassy continued to process the loss of her husband, she began to realize much more needed to be done to address the complete picture of police and community relationships.
Wading Deeper
Shortly after Greg’s death, Kassy sat in meetings with attorneys who asked for her recommendation regarding the penalty for her husband’s killer. These conversations unleashed a torrent of emotions in Kassy. As a community health researcher, she was familiar with the statistics around the disparities in the United States. Although Kassy did not know the man who killed her husband, she was aware that many factors could contribute to the risk of engaging in crime and violent activity. She began to wrestle with the complex tension that seemed to exist between justice and forgiveness, compassion and consequences. She was wading into deep waters.
Kassy found clarity one afternoon during a quiet drive. “I imagined how I would feel if I were the mother of the man who killed Greg,” she says. “Immediately, I saw him just like my own little boy. I saw that neither of us wanted to be in that tragic place. I wondered, what if we had found the man who killed Greg before that tragic day? Would we have found a man in need? And what if we could have helped him?”
On a Tuesday morning in May of 2017, Greg’s killer was sentenced to life in prison. As Kassy extended forgiveness to the man in court, she committed to living a life that promoted unity, empathy, and kindness.
Resisting the Undertow
As Kassy began to explore the growing tensions between police and citizens in minority communities, she identified a swift undercurrent of fear flowing beneath the division. “I think it takes significant courage and strength to lean into people who are different from us, to be willing to hear another’s perspective, to see our shared humanity. When we do that, we’re able to create a path forward.”
As Kassy stepped beyond her fears and sought perspectives outside her own, she recognized that police and citizen values are more similar than different: ultimately, they long for their communities to be safe, families to be protected, and children to thrive. Kassy felt that police and community partners had the tools to achieve these shared values. If they worked together, they could build stronger, safer communities. In March 2018, Heroes in Blue was rebranded as Serve and Connect to reflect Kassy’s vision to help police and citizens work together to disrupt cycles of pain and lead the way for healing and hope.
Building Bridges
Since its establishment in 2018, Serve and Connect has worked with more than 75 agencies across South Carolina, including the State Law Enforcement Division, the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Public Safety, the local field office of the FBI, and the U.S. Marshals. It is involved in more than 70 percent of South Carolina counties and 150 community partner organizations.
“Those who live and serve in communities know what the greatest needs are and are best equipped to address those needs,” says Kassy. “We are not a direct service provider. We are very much a capacity-building organization that discovers common ground to help local leaders do the work in our communities.”
Serve and Connect’s holistic approach to promoting healing and hope starts by building trust. “By listening and learning, we build bridges and hear what the most pressing issues are,” says Kassy. “Then, we bring people together to build local movements that help them achieve their vision for a different future.”
Serve and Connect empowers officers to support their communities through programs like Greg’s Groceries. Through this effort, Kassy’s organization has equipped police officers and community partners to pack more than 15,000 boxes of food — equivalent to 1 million meals — to give to those in need. Kassy has discovered that the impact of Greg’s Groceries extends far beyond filling pantries — it builds trust and relationships. “We see that about one out of every five boxes results in a police officer connecting that individual to other resources in their community.” The groceries build the bridge over the strong undercurrent of fear and skepticism and help create meaningful connections that make a lasting impact.
Serve and Connect’s Compassionate Acts Program allows officers to call their organization for 24/7 support. Recently, a school resource officer contacted Serve and Connect about a young boy with many behavioral issues who was regularly in trouble with his teachers. The officer observed that the boy only had one pair of clothes and holes in his shoes. Serve and Connect worked with the officer to ensure that the boy was provided with sufficient new clothes and shoes. The officer has since reported that the boy’s behavior has improved, he is participating in a mentorship program, and regularly talks with the officer he used to avoid.
Serve and Connect also continues the work that began under the banner of Heroes in Blue by supporting the families of officers impacted by crisis. The Tragedy Response Program facilitates fundraisers for the families of officers killed or critically injured in the line of duty. Since 2018, Serve and Connect has helped raise $1.1 million that has been directly donated to affected families.
“The big focus of mine always is to do the most good,” says Kassy. “I think what that’s starting to look like is figuring out how we really advocate and support change at a national level.” Serve and Connect is celebrating its first out-of-state partner in Roxborough, North Carolina, and is exploring how to provide its work across the country.
Coming Home
In 2023, Serve and Connect moved into its forever home near Decker Boulevard, just down the road from Richland Northeast High School — Greg’s alma mater. When Petersen Presbyterian Church had to close its doors, it wanted to ensure its property would continue to do good in the community. Church leaders quickly connected with Kassy. Although she was not in the market for property, it was impossible to resist. “This place is so deeply aligned with who we are and what we believe; I just couldn’t have found a more perfect location for us,” says Kassy.
Serve and Connect’s new home features a beautiful memorial garden by Leadership Columbia, a half-court basketball court, and a picnic pavilion. Organization employees and supporters are currently renovating the inside of the church into a multiuse space for training, community events, meetings, and neighborhood gatherings. “Our vision is that this will really be recreational space, one for neighbors to come out and enjoy,” says Kassy. Like a mighty stream, the new Serve and Connect home provides a place of hope and healing for the local community.
Time to Reflect
In April 2024, the sun disappeared behind the clouds as Kassy and Sal walked side by side through the National Police Memorial in Washington, D.C. The reflecting pool turned gray to match the sky and the long walls that were inscribed with the names of U.S. law enforcement officers — federal, state, and local — who died in the line of duty.
Kassy had just accepted the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award at the FBI Headquarters. She wore a black blazer, bright pink earrings, and a wide, warm smile as she shook the FBI director’s hand. She felt deeply honored to accept the award recognizing Serve and Connect’s contributions to strengthening communities and reducing crime and violence in South Carolina. But after all the smiling and handshaking, she was ready to take a private moment to re-center with Sal — to reflect and remember Greg.
Sal carried a small sheet of paper in one hand and a pencil in the other as he searched for his father’s name along the wall. Kassy watched as her son walked by the enormous bronze lions looming above the sidewalk like guardians. Finally, Sal found his father’s name, applied the paper to the stone, and gently began to shade. As soon as the paper revealed Greg’s name, it began to rain.
