By Blake Haas
NORMAL – Over 45 children in the Twin-Cities are smiling more this holiday season, thanks to Normal Police.
This week, the department hosted their annual ‘Shop with a Cop’ event, shopping for Christmas presents for children in need.
Normal Police Spokesperson Officer Brad Park said the program pairs children with cops around the community.
“We take those kids out shopping; each kid gets $100 to find presents for themselves, but also their friends and their family. And one of the things we try to do with the ‘Shop with a Cop’ program is we make sure the kids have a good jacket for the winter, a good pair of shoes to be wearing during the winter weather, and everything like that. And then after that, it’s kinda what they want to purchase, and we always love it.”
Over 20 local officers from NPD, Illinois State University Police, and Illinois State Police helped pick out presents over $6,000.
“It’s a very family-oriented program that we have, and so a lot of officers bring their kids or spouses along with them to help them out because sometimes having a couple young kids trying to pick out toys in a store get’s pretty hectic; so it’s always good to have help,” Officer Park told WJBC’s Todd Wineburner.
“But it’s always nice to have the interaction with the kids and with the families in general. And we’re also very happy that Tobin’s Pizza is also big sponsor of the program. We take the kids to a pizza party after we go shopping and have a bunch of good Tobin’s Pizza that they donate.”
Officer Park said the children were selected based on recommendations from various social services.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].
