Shop with a Cop! event was a great success

January 10, 2014 · 0 Comments

Caledon OPP was pretty pleased with the way their Dec. 21 Shop with a Cop! event went.
That day saw 45 deserving Caledon students get the opportunity to spend time with a police officer shopping for Christmas gifts for their families. Each student was provided with a $100 gift card donated by local businesses and schools. They were given an hour to wander the aisles of Wal-Mart Bolton to make their purchases. They were then paraded by police cruiser to Caesar’s Event Centre, where the hungry shoppers and officers were served breakfast and had a special visit from Santa.
The shoppers were also treated to a K-9 presentation by Constable Murray deRuiter from Central Region Canine.
“For the 2013 edition of Shop with a Cop!, I couldn’t have been more pleased with how the day unfolded,” commented the detachment’s Operations Manager Staff Sergeant Brian Knowler. “Our aim after our first event in 2012 was to improve every year, and we did so with more kids, more for them to do, and more Christmas cheer. It was interesting to watch the ‘veteran’ shoppers move into their roles again, and I have to confess to laughing at watching ‘rookie’ shoppers get their bearings as they were pulled into the toy section or video game aisle. This opportunity to reach out and build bridges wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the officers and staff of the Caledon OPP, the schools that participated, and our amazing sponsors and community volunteers. It truly was a community effort.”
“We are also pleased to announce that the program now has an official logo,” he added. “After judging entries from the Bolton Pathfinders group, the winning entry, by Kayla Rossi, was chosen to be the new logo for the Shop With a Cop! program. The logo was unveiled during the breakfast portion of the event and Kaila’s logo was shown blown up on a four-foot by six-foot poster.”
The sponsors who donated money, gift certificates or tokens for the event included Caesar’s Event Centre, Celeste Iacobelli Law, Countryside Montessori School, Foodland Caledon East, Garden Foods, staff and employees of the Town of Caledon, King’s College School, MacNaughton Hermsen Britton Clarkson Planning Limited, McDonald’s Bolton, Ontario Provincial Police Association, Pacific Paving Limited, Larry Pevato, Wal-Mart Bolton and Zehrs Bolton.
Schools donating funds to their own deserving students were Allan Drive Middle School, Alloa Public School, Alton Public School, Caledon East Public School, Ellwood Memorial Public School, Herb Campbell Public School, James Bolton Public School, Macville Public School, Oxford Learning Centre, Pope John Paul II Elementary School, St. Cornelius Elementary School, St. Nicholas Elementary School, Walnut Grove Public School.
Members of Caledon OPP are in the preparation stages for Shop with a Cop 2014.