Police take children on shopping spree during Shop with a Cop

More than 220 children received toys for Christmas during the Durant Police Department’s Shop with a Cop event Dec. 19 at Walmart.

John Wyatt, captain of the Durant Police Reserves, said this was the 18th year for the program that is funded by donations.

“Throughout the year, we do fundraising through having events like selling hamburgers to having community leaders, businesses, churches and schools donating money and individuals donating money,” Wyatt said. “What they do is they help us with the money.

“They volunteer families to help us shop. They also recommend families to be shopped for. So people throughout the community will either refer a family or the families will do an application on their own and send it to the police department.”

Wyatt said that this year, more than 220 children from about 90 families participated. Approximately 100 volunteers helped with the event and there was a total of about 400 people shopping at Walmart during Shop with a Cop.

Wyatt cited the economy, a problem that is affecting everybody and the program needs more donations.

“So we had probably double or triple the amount of letters that we normally get,” he said. “We’d like to help everybody but we can’t because we don’t get enough money to help everybody.

“But throughout the year, we try to tell these people, ‘Look, whatever you’ve donated, we appreciate it. Please give us more donations or even help us with fundraisers.’”