Charitable foundation honors life, legacy of fallen Blount County Deputy Greg McCowan

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Cayley and Cayden McCowan started the Deputy G. McCowan A Step Further Foundation as a way to keep fallen Deputy Greg McCowan’s spirit alive.

The foundation which aims to help other law enforcement families of injured of fallen officers by will hold its first event is coming up at the end of the month. We spoke with Cayden and Cayley Monday evening about who their dad was outside of his uniform and what they will miss most about him.

“My dad was a great dad to me,” Cayley McCowan said. “Not only was he my dad, he was my daughter’s papa and she loved him very much.”

“My dad was my best friend,” Cayden McCowan said. “He was always there to help me, to work on a car with me or talk about anything or help me out with anything.”

Following the tragedy of February 8, the Blount County community wrapped their arms around the McCowan family letting them know they didn’t have to go through this alone.

“It was a lot of help. All the cards from his car and everything,” Cayley said. “Seeing posts and everything surrounding it made me feel better about the whole situation knowing that we had all that support.”

The newly-minted Deputy G. McCowan A Step Further Foundation is holding an event on September 28 at the Pellissippi State Community College campus in Blount County.

“We are going to have live music, local musician Johno Clayton, Locust Ridge and Reckless Rhythm will come out,” Public Relations Director Charlie Dunkelberger said. “We will also have raffle items, a silent auction. There will be a kids’ area, bounce houses, face painting and in addition to that we will have food vendors.”

“Going on vacation, spending time together. There’s too many stories to tell,” Cayley said when remembering her favorite moments with her father.

Cayden reminisced on the time he and his dad were working on his 1991 LX.

“We went out, getting on it a little bit, on the track,” Cayden said. “Then he lets me drive it. We were driving it around. It was just normal riding, then it starts knocking. He blamed me for blowing it up going about 20 mph.”

Above all else, both Cayden and Cayley miss their dad.

“There’s lots of things. Waking up every morning and him asking me what I wanted to eat, fried bologna. Me needing help with my car and talking about them. He would be the go-to one,” Cayden said.

“Just being there for me when I need him and being there for our family,” Cayley said. “Being there for my daughter because she loved him and he loved her just as much, even more. I just miss him a lot.”

Both Cayley and Cayden told 6 News there were too many stories to tell about who Deputy McCowan was and the memories they had with him.

As part of the event, the foundation is holding at the end of the month, they are doing their own version of Santa Cop. People are asked to bring a toy to the car show, those toys will then be handed out by Cayden and Cayley to children at the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.

The inaugural event for the foundation is titled, “Little G’s Legacy Car Show.” Entry fee for the event is $10, or $20 if you are entering a car and free to those 12 and under. The event runs from 10:00-6:00 that day.

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