After a two-year break from gathering en masse to shop with area children, the Hiram Police Department and Village of Garrettsville Police Department held their 11th annual “Shop with a Cop” Christmas in-person event last Saturday. During COVID, the program was modified, with department staff playing the role of Santas, shopping from wish lists provided by the children and providing wrapped gifts for individual, scheduled pick up at each police station. 2022, however, marked the return to normalcy, with officers, mayors, and council members meeting with families at Target in Streetsboro to help children select and purchase their gifts this holiday season.
The “Shop with a Cop” program brings children and police officers together and builds a bond that is essential to community policing as well as providing for families that would be unable to bring about the holiday joy with food and gifts. “There should be no child that should feel the sense of confusion and the feeling of going without during the holiday season. That’s why this is a very special program that we hold dear to our hearts,” explained Hiram Police Chief Brian Gregory. Gregory noted that former Hiram Police Chief Ed Samec began the program 11 years prior; Samec was in attendance to help spread holiday cheer this year, too.
Gregory shared that as in past years, both police departments contacted Garfield and Crestwood Schools to inquire as to which families may be interested in participating in the program. School nurses and counselors chose six families from each district that might benefit from this special program. Last Saturday, 32 children from 12 families had the opportunity to select gifts as they shopped with the help of police officers and local government officials. The gifts they selected for themselves and their family members were wrapped by volunteers, ready to be enjoyed on Christmas. After the event, the families and volunteers were invited to Hiram’s Fire Station to attend a luncheon catered by AVI Food Systems from Hiram College.
The departments expressed thanks to Store Manager Michelle Eackelbary at Target in Streetsboro for hosting the special event and sharing the holiday spirit with families in the Crestwood and Garfield Schools. They also expressed gratitude for Trumbull Moose Lodge 186, who donated multiped stuffed moose toys that were provided to children during the luncheon after the Christmas shopping excursion.
One attendee responded to the department’s Facebook post afterward, sharing, “Thank you all for everything you do. It was an awesome time. We are all truly grateful and blessed to have been selected to take part in the ‘Shop with a Cop’ — Merry Christmas”
