The New York Yankees have confirmed they will be paying for the educations of the children of murdered NYPD officer Rafael Ramos. Ramos and Wenjian Liu were murdered Saturday by crazed gunman Ismaaiyl Brinsley while eating their lunch in their squad car.

George Steinbrenner, legendary owner of the New York Yankees, died in 2010, but his appreciation and love for the men and women of New York City’s emergency services continues on today in his Silver Shield Foundation. For 32 years, they have paid for the educations of the children of New York City police officers, firefighters, and Port Authority employees who have perished in the line of duty.

Steinbrenner started the Silver Shield Foundation in 1982 after seeing a news story of four children with their mother, folding an American flag at the funeral of their father, a fallen NYPD officer.

“Who’s going to take care of these kids,” Steinbrenner asked his friend, former Olympian Jim Fuchs. “We are.”

Jim Fuchs ran the foundation until his death in 2010. The Yankee Silver Shield Foundation is now run by Fuchs’ daughter, Casey. They have paid for thousands of children of fallen NYPD, NYFD, state police, and Port Authority to further their education, including 700 children who lost parents in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Wenjian Liu was recently married, and has no children, but Officer Ramos has a 13 year old son, Jaden, and another son in college.

Stories like these help restore my faith in humanity. Thank you, Mr. Steinbrenner, for “taking care of these kids.”