Santa cops lend St. Nick a helping hand
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Maryville Public Safety officer Mike Stolte, left, and MPS Sgt. Ryan Glidden, fill a shopping cart with toys at Walmart Sunday night during this year’s Santa Cops for Kids shopping spree. More than 30 children from lower-income families took part in the event, with each child receiving $150 to spend on presents for themselves and others.
Santa Claus is alive and well in Maryville, and he — or she — wears a dark blue suit and carries a badge and a gun.
While the above description may not fit the traditional image of a white-bearded, red-coated St. Nick, there is no question that the true spirit of Christmas was alive and well Sunday night at the Maryville Walmart store, where more than 20 uniformed officers from four local law enforcement agencies — most of them wearing Santa hats — made holiday wishes come true for local families in need.
The occasion was the fourth annual Santa Cops for Kids shopping spree, during which each participating child is given a gift card to spend in any way they wish. This year about eight families, and a total of 30 children, took part.
Officers accompanied the young shoppers and their parents through the store, and then helped them check out through two specially reserved checkout lanes staffed by Walmart employees dressed in elf costumes.
The children, with their parents’ consent, are allowed to buy whatever they want, including toys and clothes for themselves. However, according to Maryville Public Safety Officer Ian Myers, who coordinated this year’s event, many of the youngsters opt to buy presents for siblings and other loved ones.
Occasionally a youngster will ask to buy food for his or her family, a request that Myers called “absolutely heartbreaking.”
“It’s a little bit of a rarity,” he said, “but it has happened.”
On Sunday, however, most of the young shoppers left the store clutching radio-controlled model cars, dolls and action figures, stuffed animals, new winter coats, and at least one shiny new bicycle complete with training wheels.
It was an evening of wide smiles and even a few moist eyes.
“Thank you for doing this,” one father said quietly to a Maryville officer as his young family headed toward the exit. “This really helps.”
While the Santa Cops for Kids program has been around for a while, Myers said this year was the biggest ever, both in terms of the number of families assisted and the amount of money raised and spent.
In 2015 ten children took part in the shopping night and received gift cards good for $100 worth of merchandise. This year, three times that number of youngsters hit the aisles, each with $150.
The expanded program, Myers said, was made possible through additional fundraising over the past several months, including a Putting for Presents golf tournament at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park and a grant from the Gladys M. Rickard Charitable Trust.
Santa Cops fundraising efforts were also hosted by a pair of local businesses: Westlake Ace Hardware and Pizza Ranch.
In addition to increased support from the community at large, the effort has become a favorite of the local law enforcement community, with officers taking part from Maryville Public Safety, the Northwest Missouri State University Police Department, Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
“There’s nothing better than being around an excited group of kids,” Myers said. “It’s one of the best feelings in the world … the incredible amount of kind things that are said to us is just overwhelming.”
Because of increased awareness about the program, and because Santa Cops had a “very strong fundraising year,” Myers said every family who applied for assistance in 2016 was accepted. It’s a situation that he very much wants to repeat 12 months from now.
“We start planning for next year as soon as this one is over with,” said Myers, who plans to add a couple of additional fundraisers to the 2017 calendar.
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Law enforcement personnel from four agencies pose after participating in Sunday’s Santa Cops for Kids shopping event at Walmart. More than 20 officers took part in this year’s effort to provide toys and other presents for local children in need. Organizations represented included Maryville Public Safety, the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office, Northwest Missouri State University Police Department, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Dressed in full uniform — with the addition of a few Santa hats — officers from the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office, Missouri State Highway Patrol, Maryville Public Safety, and the Northwest Missouri State University Police Department participated in the Santa Cops for Kids shopping event Sunday at Wal-Mart. About 20 police officers, troopers, and deputies were at the store to help children from lower-income families pick out Christmas presents.
