This holiday season local police departments held events to help families in need with toys and other essentials.
Police in Largo, Pinellas, and Clearwater stepped up for families they know need extra support.
Megan Santo is the Public Information Officer for Largo Police Department.
“We love it, to give back. It’s something we always try to do,” she said.
Largo’s event was on Dec. 7 and called Shop with a Cop. It’s where selected families bring their children to Walmart and pick out toys they want for Christmas.
“Everyone always walks away from this event with smiles and it’s always a good time,” Santo said.
The children pick who they want to shop with, from firefighters to police officers in Largo.
Officers choose the families using different on-call jobs or through their Victim Advocacy line.
“We make sure no family gets it twice so we can help multiple families each year,” Santo said.
They were able to help nine families with a total of 23 children from the most recent event.
Rob Shaw, the Public Information Coordinator for Clearwater Police Department, said the department has helped 40 families.
“Several years ago we used to have officers go buy gifts and they wouldn’t know what they want or need. So the past two years we have had the children come shop with the police officers so they can get what they want or need,” Shaw said.
He said he enjoys how the children get to see the police officers in another light.
Clearwater’s event, Operation Christmas Cheer, was held over the weekend. Shaw said the department loves to give back to the community.
Shaw said the Clearwater Fire and Rescue also dropped off toys to sick children at the local hospital.
“Every year they bring toys to help brighten up their time there,” he said.
Ricky Butler is the Community programs and Public Education Manager at the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.
He said the department raised around $80,000 at its annual Ride and Run With the Stars 5K.
“We had a little over 200 people register for the event itself,” Butler said.
But for the 5K’s 31st year, he said the turnout was a bit lower than usual.
Photo from Pinellas Country Department
With the raised funds, the officers are given a shopping list from each family’s child and a set limit for spending money.
“We help families year after year and we try to reach families who are new to us,” he said. “We try to pay attention to how frequently we are helping families to keep them on the up and up,” Butler said.
Butler said they try to provide food, gift cards, and other essentials for families to reach different criteria to help as much as possible.
Due to the lower turnout, they did “adopt a family” to allow other members of the community to choose a family and shop for them.
Each police department had a goal to help families in need and they all said they are grateful to give back this holiday season.
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