Shops, cops, toys, tots — the holiday season has begun in earnest in the Perry area.
Prayers of gratitude for many blessings mingled with the rising steam of many soups Wednesday night at the annual Shop with a Cop fundraiser at the First Christian Church. Hundreds gathered for chili and cornbread, beef barley and more exotic fare, such as cheeseburger soup, saving room as always for desserts.
The pre-Thanksgiving event was sponsored by the EDGE youth group of the First Christian Church. A number of officers of the Perry Police Department mingled with local community members and shared the harvest bounty from 5-7 p.m.
This is the Perry Police Department’s second year of involvement with the Shop with a Cop program, which brings together Perry Police officers and local children and families in need at Christmas. Officers and kids spend time together, one on one, in an positive holiday shopping experience.
“This is one way the Perry Police officers make a positive contribution to the community,” said Perry Police Detective Sgt. Jerome Hill, who spearheads the department’s Shop with a Cop efforts.
Replete with soup, a smaller but no less ardent group of people attended the ecumenical Thanksgiving religious service following the soups at the First United Methodist Church at 7 p.m. Rev. Jeremy Winter of the Mount Olivet Lutheran Church preached on the theme, “An Attitude of Gratitude.”
Joining Winter in the service were Fr. Chris Reising of the St. Patrick Catholic Church, Rev. Paul Burrow of the First United Methodist Church, Rev. Lou Hoger of the Perry Ministerial Association, Rev. Shari Hughes-Empke of the St. Martin’s Episcopal Church and George Eldridge of the St. Martin’s Episcopal Church.
Bertha Mae Van Horne was the pianist, leading the assembled faithful in hymns, including the Doxology, “Praise God, from Whom All Blessings Flow.”
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise him, all creatures here below.
Praise him above, ye heavenly host.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
