Due to the icy roads on December 14th, the Greene County Peace Officer’s Association delayed doing its annual Shop With A Cop to this past Saturday.

Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams said all of the participating kids were picked up at the law enforcement center administrative building in a school bus and taken to the Walmart in Boone to shop for their family members in their households and themselves, with a total of $150 to spend. Afterwards the kids were taken back by bus to the law enforcement center administrative building where they enjoyed free pizza and wrapped their gifts with the Iowa State Patrol Troopers, Sheriff’s Office personnel, Jefferson Police Officers and volunteers with the Jefferson Kiwanis Club.

Williams explained that this program not only helps out those less fortunate kids and families in the county, but also helps the kids connect with law enforcement for something positive, earlier in life.

“It definitely helps with building that trust between the officer and the children because then they’ll go to school and say that, ‘This officer did this with them and it was fun.’ So it spreads fast. Most of the schools, now we can walk in and some know us by name, some kids run up and give us hugs. So it’s helped with building the trust between us and the younger youth.” 

Williams was appreciative of the grant they received from Walmart for the amount of funds that are spent every year with Shop With A Cop. Anyone who would like to donate to future Shop With A Cop can do so by click on the QR Code to Venmo or by dropping off a check at the law enforcement center administrative building.