CLEVELAND HEIGHTS -- The Steelers play the Cleveland Browns Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Win or lose that game, a Cleveland suburb is getting something special just because the game is being played in Cleveland.
Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation at The Giving Back Fund will be distributing a grant to the Cleveland Heights Police Department.
Roethlisberger, a Findlay native, said the Cleveland Heights Police Department's K-9 division will utilize the grant to provide for the purchase and training of a new canine, as well as a K-9 ballistic vest.
During the 2011-12 NFL season, the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation has distributed grants to K-9 units of police and fire departments in the cities and surrounding communities of each regular season away game for the Steelers.
This grant marks the final grant of the regular season.
The Foundation will also distribute several grants to the Pittsburgh area and will consider grants to any two cities in the United States when the Steelers make the playoffs.
The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation invited police and fire departments across the country to submit proposals detailing their needs.
The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation seeks to support K-9 units of police and fire departments throughout the United States with a particular emphasis on support for service dogs in Pittsburgh, PA.
Cleveland Heights Chief of Police Jeffrey Robertson said, "The K-9 will be a great addition to our department, not only on the law enforcement side, but in our continued initiatives in community policing programs. I look forward to seeing our new K-9 in our elementary schools visiting with the kids and allowing our officers to interact with the younger residents of our City."
Robertson added, "On behalf of the Cleveland Heights Police Department, I would like to thank the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation for selecting our department as the recipient of a grant."
WKYC-TV