The annual Christmas With Cops — aka Shop with a Cop — needs cash donations from the community.
Though challenges associated with the COVID- 19 pandemic will make things a bit different this year, the annual Christmas With Cops shopping trip will go on.
“To make sure everyone is safe, we’re going to take the kids shopping in shifts this year,” said Chris Fincher, Coosa Valley Fraternal Order of Police president.
The CVFOP has been putting on the event, sometimes called Shop With a Cop, for nearly 20 years, and this year they hope to continue providing local kids with toys for Christmas.
Without a major public event to raise money, though, the CVFOP is making a call for cash donations in order to maintain the usual $200 per child amount.
“We’ll be shopping with 10 kids at a time for five hours on Dec. 12 at Walmart, starting at 7 a.m. and going until noon,” Fincher said.
This year’s event will help around 50 children, which has been scaled down slightly for 2020. Kids are selected by local school counselors or identified by officers from the Floyd County and Rome police departments as well as the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office while conducting their normal duties in the community.
The CVFOP also works handin-hand with the Hospitality House to help children in need, according to Fincher.
“This is our favorite event of the year,” Fincher said. “We look forward to it, the kids look forward to it and the officers enjoy it just as much or maybe more than the kids do.”
CVFOP members will be out at Rolater Park on Saturday morning, selling Tshirts and taking donations during the Cave Spring Small Town Christmas in the Country event.
An upcoming silent auction on the CVFOP Facebook page will also help buy toys this year by selling handcrafted wooden items made by Floyd County Prison inmates.
Auction items will include a large entertainment center with sliding barn style doors, a large butcher block, a bowl and a wooden jar with a lid. That auction will end on Dec. 12, the day of the shopping event.
Checks can also be mailed and made payable to the Coosa Valley FOP, 3 Central Plaza, Box 143, Rome, GA 30161.