Shop with a Cop 2013 was a great time!
The Shop with a Cop annual event was held on Saturday, December 14, 2013 at the Clackamas Wal-Mart. The Foundation has been fortunate to partner with Canby Police Department, who did their first Shop with a Cop in 2008. The concept behind the Shop with a Cop program is to locate kids whose families are needy and may have had some enforcement contact with police. Sometimes this may involve an adult family member or older sibling who may have been arrested. The trauma of seeing a family member arrested can cause many young kids to have some very negative feelings towards police, as they rarely hear the whole story, objectively, from those involved. Shop with a Cop is an attempt to identify those kids and pair them up with a police officer in a positive situation, such as shopping for Christmas presents. Kids are selected by school counselors and come from Canby, Molalla, Estacada, West Linn, Lake Oswego, and the North Clackamas School District. In 2013, 135 kids were able to shop with a cop at the Clackamas Wal-Mart store. 53 uniformed police officers, deputy sheriff's, and other law enforcement were paired up with the kids, who each were given a $100 gift card. Interestingly, almost all the kids shopped for their family members first, then themselves! Officers and kids learned a great deal from each other during this great event. Officers came from the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, Oregon State Police, Clackamas County Parole and Probation, Molalla, Canby, West Linn, Milwaukie, Sandy, and Lake Oswego Police Departments. All came on their own time to share this special time with the kids. There were also 47 volunteers who helped with administration, gift wrapping, cart shuttling and many other things that made the event a success! Santa this year was Deputy Sheriff Jason Ritter and he did a great job - he will be welcome back again next year! Wal-Mart supplied volunteer employees to gift wrap all the gifts. The Shop with a Cop 2014 will be held on Saturday, December 13, 2014 (12-13-14!). The entire event is put on with donations. Most of the come from the public and businesses. If you'd like to help, please go to the link "Make a Donation" at the top of the page. Every $100 donated means another kid can Shop with a Cop! All donors will receive a tax receipt by mail. 100% of your donation will be used for Shop with a Cop! Thank you!
