Kids’ dreams come true with Shop with a Cop
Pictured above, Timothy Crites, 3, checks out his haul with officer Morgan Struble and his dad, Alvin Crites.
December 17, 2014
Charlea Mills
For 18 Seligman kids, Sunday marked the afternoon of a lifetime when they were treated to lunch by a cop in a blue Santa hat and were given an empty shopping cart with prompt, “What do you want for Christmas?”
This marked the fourth year for the Seligman Police Department’s Shop with a Cop program. Each year, the police officers get together and take children shopping for their Christmas gifts with money donated by the community. Due to family circumstances, the children selected might not otherwise get many gifts this holiday season. With the help of both businesses and individual donors, the police department raised $4,035, enough to give each of the children $210 to shop with at the Cassville Walmart and treat them to lunch at Subway.
As the children signed in, they met their cop and started shopping. For some, like three-year old Robert Gonzalez, it didn’t take more than a moment to make his big request. He looked right at Seligman Police Chief Terry Burgess and shouted, “I want a Ninja Turtle bike.” With a smile, Burgess replied, “Well then let’s go get you one.” After all, making a dream come true is what the program is all about.
However, for other kids, making the decision to get whatever they wanted wasn’t as simple. Officer Joe Arnold shared, “The kids didn’t really believe that it was real. They were sort of reserved at first. They didn’t believe that they could really go get whatever they wanted. Then, you get to see them realize, ‘Yeah, you get whatever you want.’ It was pretty amazing. I’ve never experienced that before.”
Each of the children spent their money on whatever their heart desired. Burgess said, “First off, we always asked them if they had a good winter coat. If they didn’t, then that was the first stop.” For a few kids, bikes were the big ticket item that they wanted. For others, it was a big toy, clothes, or a pellet gun or youth compound bow. The goal was to get them exactly what they wanted as long as it fit into their budget.
Mike Avers, father of two of the boys participating this year, said, “I think I’m having more fun than they are. They’re getting all of the things that they’ve always wanted.”
For a lot of parents, this time of year is especially hard. Shop with a Cop takes a lot of that burden off of their shoulders. Each of the families participating were struggling in some way. For some, that meant a lost job or an injury, but for one family, that meant a lost parent. Whatever the circumstances, the officers were happy that they could make sure that Christmas morning was special for them, no matter what else was going on their lives.
While the program is good for children, it also benefits the community. Burgess said, “It’s good for the community to see that we are the good guys. We want them to know they can come to us.”
As the officers took the children one by one to fill their carts, one thing stuck out to Officer Mike Smith. He said, “A lot of kids wanted to buy things for other people. You’d think that they’d want everything for themselves, but that wasn’t the case. It was surprising.”
At the end of the day, Burgess said, “It was a tremendous pleasure to take 18 of Seligman’s youth Christmas shopping and to know that the children will have a happy holiday.”
As the day wound down and the kids were pushing their carts out to head home, the experience was still a bit surreal. When asked what the day was like for them, one boy, Jacob Nelson, 10, said, “It’s like shopping with Santa.”
Charlea Mills
For 18 Seligman kids, Sunday marked the afternoon of a lifetime when they were treated to lunch by a cop in a blue Santa hat and were given an empty shopping cart with prompt, “What do you want for Christmas?”
This marked the fourth year for the Seligman Police Department’s Shop with a Cop program. Each year, the police officers get together and take children shopping for their Christmas gifts with money donated by the community. Due to family circumstances, the children selected might not otherwise get many gifts this holiday season. With the help of both businesses and individual donors, the police department raised $4,035, enough to give each of the children $210 to shop with at the Cassville Walmart and treat them to lunch at Subway.
As the children signed in, they met their cop and started shopping. For some, like three-year old Robert Gonzalez, it didn’t take more than a moment to make his big request. He looked right at Seligman Police Chief Terry Burgess and shouted, “I want a Ninja Turtle bike.” With a smile, Burgess replied, “Well then let’s go get you one.” After all, making a dream come true is what the program is all about.
However, for other kids, making the decision to get whatever they wanted wasn’t as simple. Officer Joe Arnold shared, “The kids didn’t really believe that it was real. They were sort of reserved at first. They didn’t believe that they could really go get whatever they wanted. Then, you get to see them realize, ‘Yeah, you get whatever you want.’ It was pretty amazing. I’ve never experienced that before.”
Each of the children spent their money on whatever their heart desired. Burgess said, “First off, we always asked them if they had a good winter coat. If they didn’t, then that was the first stop.” For a few kids, bikes were the big ticket item that they wanted. For others, it was a big toy, clothes, or a pellet gun or youth compound bow. The goal was to get them exactly what they wanted as long as it fit into their budget.
Mike Avers, father of two of the boys participating this year, said, “I think I’m having more fun than they are. They’re getting all of the things that they’ve always wanted.”
For a lot of parents, this time of year is especially hard. Shop with a Cop takes a lot of that burden off of their shoulders. Each of the families participating were struggling in some way. For some, that meant a lost job or an injury, but for one family, that meant a lost parent. Whatever the circumstances, the officers were happy that they could make sure that Christmas morning was special for them, no matter what else was going on their lives.
While the program is good for children, it also benefits the community. Burgess said, “It’s good for the community to see that we are the good guys. We want them to know they can come to us.”
As the officers took the children one by one to fill their carts, one thing stuck out to Officer Mike Smith. He said, “A lot of kids wanted to buy things for other people. You’d think that they’d want everything for themselves, but that wasn’t the case. It was surprising.”
At the end of the day, Burgess said, “It was a tremendous pleasure to take 18 of Seligman’s youth Christmas shopping and to know that the children will have a happy holiday.”
As the day wound down and the kids were pushing their carts out to head home, the experience was still a bit surreal. When asked what the day was like for them, one boy, Jacob Nelson, 10, said, “It’s like shopping with Santa.”
The Seligman Police officers are pictured above with the ending receipt. From left to right: Morgan Struble, Joe Arnold, Chief Terry Burgess and Mike Smith.
