More than 340 Jefferson County children have reason to celebrate this Christmas season, thanks to local police and first responders who found a way to buy them gifts despite the COVID-19 pandemic putting a clamp on fundraising events for most of the year.
More than 25 police departments and emergency service agencies around the county participated in the Jeffco Shop with a Cop program, buying gifts for about 250 children.
The Byrnes Mill Police Department held its Shop with a Hero event, providing about 70 youngsters with gift certificates, and the Arnold Police Department held its own version of Shop with a Cop, taking 20 children Christmas shopping.
Typically, all the programs call for first responders to take children shopping for their gifts, but this year, due to the pandemic, the Jeffco Shop with a Cop and the Byrnes Mill Shop with a Hero programs got the children’s Christmas wish lists and did the shopping for them and then distributed the gifts to the families.
For the Arnold Shop with a Cop program, officers still accompanied youngsters on the shopping trip, but everyone was required to wear masks and practice social distancing as much as possible.
Jeffco Shop with a Cop
“We had some businesses step up and provide us with raffle prizes for fundraising,” said Festus Police Detective Sgt. Lewis Pippin, a member of the Jeffco Shop with a Cop Board of Directors. “We also had some businesses provide some pretty substantial monetary donations. Also, we rolled some money over from the previous year.
“We raised about $25,000 total. We spent about $100 per child and shopped for about 250 children.”
After the emergency responders shopped for the children, two drive-thru gift distribution days were held – one on Dec. 9 at Hillsboro Primary School and the other on Dec. 12 at Faith Baptist Church in Festus.
“We wanted to have the safest possible environment for the kids during the pandemic,” Pippin said. “We shopped at the Festus Walmart and the De Soto Walmart.”
Jeffco Shop with a Cop serves children from every public school district in Jefferson County, except the Northwest R-1 School District, which has students served by the Shop with a Hero program organized by the Byrnes Mill Police.
Volunteers with the Jeffco Shop with a Cop program contact school officials and others to find families who could benefit from the program, Pippin said.
Sandy Allen of Crystal City said her family was one of the lucky ones who got help through the program.
“It helps the children tremendously,” Allen said. “Six of our seven kids attend Crystal City schools and were in the Shop with a Cop this year. It really means a lot this year. Times are hard because of COVID and my husband hurt his fingers at work and has missed work.
“This has been a big help to our family. They’re able to get what they want.”
Lacey Nance of Valles Mines said that for her child, a fourth-grade student at Sunrise School, the program was a big boost.
“I didn’t know anything about this before a school counselor contacted us,” Nance said. “It definitely was a help to us due to the economic times in general and the COVID.”
Pippin said that considering everything, he felt the 2020 Jeffco Shop with a Cop program went off rather well.
“The struggles COVID presented for us were unfortunate,” he said. “But, given the current economy, we’re happy where we are. The kids needed us more than ever because of the economy.”
Pippin said that while getting gifts for children is the focus of the effort, a side benefit is positive public relations for first responders.
“This helps bridge the gap between first responders and children and builds long-term relationships,” he said.
Twenty-seven police, fire and emergency service agencies took part in the Jeffco Shop with a Cop program, including the Crystal City, De Soto, Festus, Herculaneum, Hillsboro and Pevely police departments and the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, the Jefferson College Police Department, the Jefferson College Law Enforcement Academy and Jefferson County 911 Dispatch; as well as the Antonia,
De Soto Rural, Dunklin, Hematite, Hillsboro, Goldman, Mapaville and Jefferson R-7 fire protection districts; the Crystal City, Festus, De Soto and Herculaneum fire departments; and the Joachim-Plattin, Rock Township and Valle ambulance districts. In addition, the Dunklin R-5 School District, which has its own police department, participated in the program, as did Survival Flight.
Arnold Shop with a Cop
The Arnold Police Officers Association’s Shop with a Cop program proceeded more or less as normal Dec. 17 at the Arnold Walmart store, with 20 youngsters paired up with police officers to shop for their gifts, said Detective Matt Phillips.
However, the pandemic negatively affected the organization’s fundraising this year, Phillips said.
“It was down. But, we received a grant from Walmart to make this happen. It amounted to $100 per kid.
“Our major fundraiser each year is a car show at Arnold Days, which was canceled due to COVID. Without the Walmart grant, this would not be possible this year.”
He said his group serves students in the Fox C-6 School District, mainly the schools located within the city of Arnold.
Byrnes Mill Shop with a Hero
The Byrnes Mill Police Department, the North Jefferson and Big River ambulance districts, and the High Ridge Fire protection district and Jefferson County 911 Dispatch took part in the Shop with a Hero program that provided gifts for 72 students in the Northwest R-1 School District who live in the 63049 and 63051 ZIP codes. Personnel from the participating agencies raised money for the children and gave them $100 gift certificates on Dec. 12 at Spring Hill Presbyterian Church in Byrnes Mill.
“We gave each family a specific time to come to the church,” Byrnes Mill Police Chief Frank Selvaggio said. “The heroes brought the certificates to the vehicles.”