St. Petersburg Police Officer, Michael Cordiviola continues to recover after being shot in the leg by a teen suspect May 17th.

Fellow officer, Willie Jennings and Lisa DuBose, who is engaged to a St. Pete officer, wanted to help with that recovery.

"Be somebody's angel, that is what we’re here on earth to do, look out for fellow man," said DuBose.

So, the friends started a GoFundMe page.

"I just felt compelled to do something because he's the sole provider and he has three little kids and a wife," said DuBose.

Officer Cordiviola is currently on workers’ compensation.

"It gets to a point where workman's comp actually pays them a percentage of what they usually make, then the City makes up another portion,” said George Lofton, President-Elect of the Sun Coast Police Benevolent Association. “And what I'm told from a lot of officers is, these together don't always make up 100% of what their normal base pay is."

When healthy, many officers rely on overtime and off-duty jobs to supplement their incomes.

"With the number of games the Rays play at home and the number of special events that go on throughout downtown and the city on a normal basis,” said Lofton.“Officers do work those and are able to make a few extra dollars to just try to make ends meet."

Other off-duty jobs include security at area bars and clubs and concerts. Cordiviola can’t work those off-duty jobs or get overtime while out. But friends say he did take advantage of those opportunities before he was shot.

"It means so much just to make ends meet in this economy,” said DuBose. “Its' just amazing what they do and how much overtime they do."

DuBose hopes money raised on the GoFundMe page will help the healing process.

"To be able to recover, you have to have peace, mind, body and soul bottom line,” said DuBose. “I hope this just brings him that peace so he can focus, because nobody knows what they go through on the job."

This Gofundme.com site is not managed by Bay News 9. For more information on how the site works and the rules visit http://www.gofundme.com/safety.