Public safety agents in the Perry Police Department’s annual Shop with a Cop program fanned out across the Perry retail district Saturday morning in the company of 30 youngsters eager to check items off their Christmas wish lists.
Perry Police Det. Jerome Hill and Dispatcher Joey Loewen, who organize and administer the annual event, described Shop with a Cop as a unique program in which public safety officials share Christmas gift giving with children and families in Perry who are in need.
“Officers and kids spend time together, one on one, in an unforgettable holiday shopping experience,” Hill said. “This is one way the Perry Police officers make a positive contribution to the community.”
The local public safety officials gathered at the Perry Elementary School at 8 a.m. and waited for the young shoppers to arrive and when the stores opened at 9 a.m., everyone hit the streets and made their way to the four Perry retailers participating in the Shop with a Cop program: Ben’s Five and Dime, Shopko, Dollar General and Orscheln Farm and Home.
Once again this year, officers of the Perry Police Department received a lot of help from police departments in Woodward, Dallas Center, West Des Moines and Nevada as well as other agencies, such as the Perry Volunteer Fire Department and Dallas County EMS.
Perry’s Shop with a Cop also received a big boost last month when the 100+ People for Perry donors club awarded the program $7,700, a tidy addition to the donations raised at the First Christian Church’s annual Before the Turkey Soup Supper.
Dallas Center Police Chief Michelle Leonard and Dallas Center Police Reserve Officer Christopher Reha were among the many shopping teams, scanning the aisles in the company of three boys. Leonard, who will retire as police chief in the spring in order to assume the ministry of the Panora Church of the Brethren, said Shop with a Cop has been one of the events she has always made a point to attend.
“This is one of those things I’m really going to miss,” Leonard said. “As you can see, the officers have as good a time as the kids, maybe better, and it makes such a big difference in these young people’s lives and the lives of their families.”
