Ferguson Township and Patton Township police teamed up to provide Christmas gifts to children from local families in need of a little help this holiday season.
The departments joined together for their inaugural ‘Shop with a Cop,’ a national initiative in which police raise money and buy gifts for children in need in their communities.
Patton Township Police Chief Tyler Jolley said Ferguson Township Officer Lauren Neely and Corporal Brian Rose came up with the idea to bring the event to the Centre Region.
‘We felt that was a really good way for us to interact with the community and to help out some families that might need a little bit of assistance this time of year,’ Jolley said.
The departments worked with the Salvation Army to identify eight local families with a total of 14 children to receive gifts.
Jolley and Ferguson Township Police Chief Chris Albright lifted their policy on facial hair last month to allow officers to participate in ‘No Shave November.’ Those who did made a donation of at least $20 each and the unions for both departments matched the totals raised.
That combined with contributions from several local businesses netted nearly $4,000 for the Shop with a Cop effort.
Officers from Ferguson Township and Patton Township wrapped gifts on Dec. 21, 2020 for their Shop with a Cop initiative providing holiday gifts to 14 local children. Photo provided.
The idea behind Shop with a Cop is for kids to go with officers to pick out gifts. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, that wasn’t possible for this year.
Jolley said that instead the departments worked with the Salvation Army to coordinate with families on an ‘angel tree’-type concept.
‘We asked the families to provide lists with the first name of the child, their age and then some things that the child wanted and some things that the child needed,’ Jolley said. ‘Obviously the kids wanted toys and then the parents told us clothing or different things like that that they needed. So there was a pretty good balance there trying to navigate between that.’
Officers went shopping at Walmart then gathered at the Ferguson Township Municipal Building to wrap the gifts on Monday night.
Most families picked up the gifts at the Ferguson Township station, and police dropped them off for a few others.
‘We have a really good working relationship with Ferguson Township, so our officers are very familiar with each other and help each other out on calls all the time,’ Jolley said. ‘But this was a fantastic opportunity for us to really help the community, help some families who are in need. A lot of families are struggling with the pandemic. And obviously it’s good for us to be able to interact with the community, show the community we’re here and we’re here to help and that we’re willing to pull our resources together to help our community any way we can.’
This year’s effort didn’t get underway until mid-October, and Jolley said the departments hope that the initiative continues to grow in the coming years.
‘Next year we’re looking to make it bigger and better,’ he said. ‘We’ll definitely look to make this an annual event and hopefully every year we continue to grow and help as many families as we can in our region.’
Photo provided
