Alisa Kendall and Zoey Lavalley enjoy selecting a T-shirt with White County Deputies John Carter and Michael Long
(Cleveland)- Thursday and Friday of this week were two special days for less privileged kids in White County as 42 boys and girls were selected to participate in a Shop With A Cop for Christmas event coordinated by White County Family Connections.
Mark Griffin, White County Family Connection Coordinator said they started each day at North Georgia Bar-B-Que, where lunch was provided by Mat Harper and Stacy Pruitt and then they join up at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart officials designated two checkouts just for the event.
Corporal Brandon Wood with Cleveland Police took time on his day off to participate in the program. Wood said he was working with a young man “ who got a few items for himself but mainly picked out Items for his family and this shows what kind of heart our kids in the community have” He said “ you get to see the children and parents and the gratitude, it makes it worthwhile”
10-year-old Max Moon ask White County Sheriff Rick Kelley for help in selecting items
Sheriff Rick Kelley was shopping with a young man who selected a pack of Pokémon Trading Cards and it didn’t have a price on them, Kelly said the lady with Wal-Mart came by and scanned it and it was $44, about that same time there was a lady that walked by right and she pulled out $40 in cash and handed it to the sheriff to pay for the Pokémon cards. Kelly said, “that’s pretty impressive of the community here in White County.”
According to Griffin, “everybody gets a lot of joy out of it, it’s a real opportunity to share Christmas with the kids and allow them time to share with law enforcement. It’s hard for me to say if the kids or law enforcement gets more out of it.”
Griffin noted that all the funds used for Shop With A Cop were provided by donations from the community.
