The Tunnel to Towers Foundation has stepped up to support the family of police officer Francesco “Frank” Scorpo, who died of Covid-19 on Easter Sunday.

Scorpo left behind his wife, Kristina, and two young children.

“Officer Scorpo served his New Jersey community for five years as a police officer. His wife Kristina is a nurse, and has faced this horrible virus head-on through patient care. Both of them went to work bravely each day, knowing they were putting their own lives at  risk in order to help others,” Frank Siller, head of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, said. “My hope is that, in lifting this financial burden off of Kristina’s shoulders, she can grieve and focus on her two young boys with greater peace of mind.”

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation will pay the family’s mortgage until its Covid-19 Heroes Fund is depleted. The fund was established with a $3 million pledge and has grown to $4.5 million to support people battling the new coronavirus. The foundation is looking to raise $10 million more to support the “nation’s frontline heroes.”

“I’m incredibly grateful to The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation for their generosity, which will enable me to raise my children in the home Frank and I shared. I would like to thank the Foundation for honoring my husband’s service, and for helping me to keep his memory in our home,” Kristina Scorpo said. Her husband dreamt of becoming a police officer from a young age, she said. When he was accepted to the Bergen County Police Academy to become an officer at the Paterson Police Department in 2015 it was dream come true.

Scorpo was 35 years old. He had worked at the Paterson Police Department for five years.

The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, named after a New York City firefighter, who died on 9/11, is aiding health care workers and first responders battling the pandemic. The foundation has given 500,000 pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks, gowns, and face shields to health care workers and first responders throughout New York and New Jersey. It has delivered thousands of meals to police stations and firehouses during the pandemic.

The foundation has identified 15 families of people who died battling the virus to temporary pay their mortgage.