Deputies, Community Out In Force To Help Cancer Fighter Dan Witt

Detective Jason Himmeo, with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, made it clear why he was in attendance Dec. 14 at O'Brien's Irish Pub and Family Restaurant in Brandon, for the WittFest 2012: Rockin' the Cause fundraiser for HCSO deputy Dan Witt.

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"We do this job, which is dangerous enough, and when you have something like this come up, it's worse than what we face on the street," Himmeo said.

"Something like this" is the cancer that has stricken the 33-year-old Witt, for whom the fundraiser aims to help both the deputy and his family.

"I've worked with Dan since 1999, and he's a fighter," Himmeo said. "We're hoping this [fundraiser] gives him a little bit of a reprieve from the money issues so he can deal with his health issues."

That Witt is a forimdable cancer opponent is a given, added Himmeo, in attendance as well as a member of the Renegade Pigs motorcycle club.

"This cancer probably would have taken somebody else a long time ago," Himmeo said. "But Dan's fighting through it."

Loretta Sanders, who with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office serves as a community service officer, manned the table selling event T-shirts and raffle tickets for an impressive array of items donated by local businesse people.

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The event, she said, "is a beautiful thing, and it shows people still have heart."

"We're all family," she added. "It shows love and support and that's beautiful to me, and I wanted to be a part of it."

She, too, said she knows Witt personally.

"He's a beautiful person, he's a great deputy," she said. "I just pray and hope everything gets better for him. What he's going through is a horrible thing. When a person is down like this, it helps the family and the [cancer fighter] to know that other people care, sincerely care."

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