Submitted by WOOD COUNTY FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE
The Wood County Fraternal Order of Police held its annual Cops and Kids Shopping Event on Saturday December 3 2016. This is an event where police officers are paired up with a child from the area and provided a $100.00 gift card to spend on clothing and toys. This is more than just about shopping, it is about building relationships between the kids and police officers.
This year Meijer in Rossford again hosted Cops and Kids here in Wood County. This past Saturday, approximately 72 local law enforcement officers were able to take 127 kids shopping. The majority of the financial support comes from the community, local businesses and local organizations. The FOP certainly could not achieve this without the support of the community. This event is a great opportunity for law enforcement and the community to work together to make local children’s holiday season a little brighter. The kids that are invited to participate are referred by the local schools as well as from the officers. On a daily basis, police officers are responding to calls here in Wood County. As a result, they are in homes where they can see firsthand that a particular family could benefit from a helping hand. The officers are paired up with a child from their jurisdiction and given a cart, a gift card and sent on their way to shop and more importantly, build that positive relationship. They must first buy a coat. The remaining money can be spent on toys. A lot of times, the kids want to buy their brother or sister a gift as well.
The positive impact this has on the local kids and community is not really measurable. And again, our local police officers could not pull it off without the financial support of the community. The Wood County FOP Cops an Kids Program not only hosts this shopping event in December, but other programs through out the year. In the Spring, the FOP host a movie night. Officers invite area kids to come to the movie theater and watch a movie and share some popcorn. In May of each year, the FOP invites 4th and 5th graders with perfect attendance to a day of fishing at Bass Pro. The FOP continues to work with the community to come up with different programs were officers get to spend time with area kids in positive events. Our goal is to have the kids see the officers past their uniforms, and realize they are there to help.
