Thanks to the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office, more than 100 local children will have a better Christmas after taking part in the annual Shop with a Deputy event Saturday morning at the University Town Centre Walmart.
This year, 116 kids were signed up for the annual event, topping last year’s number of 75.
Nearly 20 current and former deputies, detectives and sheriff’s office staff volunteered to team up with the kids and help them choose their perfect Christmas gifts, as well as keep track of their spending.
“It’s something we’ve been doing for 20-plus years. It’s really a give-back to the community,” Monongalia County Sheriff Perry Palmer told The Dominion Post.
“It enables a lot of kids that otherwise wouldn’t have a good Christmas other than this,” he said. “They can come and shop with a police officer or somebody from the department that they get to know a little bit and find out the good side of law enforcement.”
The sheriff’s office is able to fund the annual event mainly through donations to the Monongalia County Deputy Sheriff’s Association from community members and local businesses.
This year, the department was able to purchase $150 in gifts for each of the kids who participated, thanks to the community’s generosity.
The sheriff said that it is really the businesses and community members that donate to the cause that allows them to continue the event each year.
“I think this county that we have here is really community-oriented and they really give back to us and we give back to them,” Palmer said.
At the registers, evidence of successful shopping could be seen on the children’s faces and in their carts filled with everything from clothes to toys and video games to fishing poles. A few kids even rode out with brand-new bicycles.
Palmer said the experience is as rewarding for deputies as it is for the children because “a lot of times a police officer doesn’t have time on a call to really talk to the children, so this is a good opportunity for them to get to know them a little bit better and maybe even make a bond that child won’t forget or years down the road remember.”
