Officer’s Slaying Sparks Generosity : Donations: The Michael Clark Trust Fund has raised $15,000 already. A benefit brunch is planned, and free medical care is offered to the victim’s family.

Dr. Franklin Katz wants to give slain Simi Valley Police Officer Michael Clark’s baby son free medical care. Anthony Bellissimo is hosting a benefit brunch at his Thousand Oaks restaurant Saturday for Clark’s family.

And in Simi Valley, city employees are being told today they can cash out vacation time and put the money into a trust fund for Clark’s widow, Jenifer, and his son, Bayley.

So far, the outpouring of community spirit over the death of 28-year-old Clark has raised $15,000 for the Michael Clark Trust Fund, with no end in sight to the giving.

“So many people have been forthcoming with donations, it really kind of brings out the emotions in you,” said Simi Valley Police Department Lt. Tony Harper.

“After all the rotten things we seem to be confronted with on television, it’s good to know there are so many good people in this world,” he added.

City Manager Mike Sedell said Simi Valley’s 518 employees will open their paycheck envelopes this morning to find a notice telling them how they can donate annual leave time to Clark’s family.

Employees can turn as many days or hours of paid vacation time as they want into a donation to the trust.

“It allows employees to make a donation even if their cash flow is low right now,” Sedell said.

Employees have two weeks to make their donation, and all the money will be presented to the Clark family on Sept. 8, he said.

The $15,000 already in the fund has come from all over the region, Harper said. Donations have ranged from $5 bills to a $1,500 check from the local Farmers Insurance Group.

Restaurant owner Bellissimo hopes to make a sizable donation to the fund after his benefit brunch Saturday at Cafe Bellissimo. The 26-year-old was moved to hold the event because of the parallels between his own life and Clark’s.

Until May, Bellissimo worked for the Phoenix Police Department. He had always wanted to be a policeman, but when his wife, Shannon, was pregnant last winter, he began to worry about the impact his job might have on his family.

“It wasn’t so much a fear of dying as it was a fear of leaving behind my wife and baby,” he said.

In a three-month period, he said, he was shot at four times and decided to get out of law enforcement and back into the restaurant business with his father. After Clark was shot last Friday while checking on a reportedly suicidal Simi Valley man, Bellissimo said he was struck by how easily it could have been his wife who was left alone with an infant.

Together he and his father decided to hold the benefit, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the restaurant on Brazil Street in Thousand Oaks. For $9.95, people can eat as much Sicilian-style Italian food, bacon and eggs as they want.

Pediatrician Katz said he sent a letter to the Clark family offering them several years of free medical services with the Greater Valley Medical Group, which has offices in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks. He hasn’t heard whether they will accept the offer, but he said he believed it important to make the gesture.

“I thought this was the least we could do,” Katz said.

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FYI

To donate to the Michael Clark Trust Fund, send checks to the Simi Valley Police Department, 3200 Cochran St., Simi Valley, 93065, or to Simi Valley Bank, 1475 Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley, 93065.