The shopping police
Published: July 31, 2006
Officers participate in Shop With A Cop, buying clothes and school supplies for children in need
It’s hard to see the man behind the uniform.
Travis Robinson, state lodge sergeant-at-arms for the N.C. State Lodge Fraternal Order of Police and lieutenant in the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, said that life on-duty making arrests and answering emergency phone calls can make people forget that law enforcement officers are in some ways like everybody else, just trying to lead a normal life.
That’s one of the reasons he volunteers with Shop With A Cop, a year-round fund-raiser that raises money to help buy children clothes for school, Christmas and Thanksgiving.
In about a month, right before school starts, the $5,000-$6,000 raised from community donations fund a shopping spree to Wal-Mart or Kmart. The money buys clothes for 25 to 30 children, maybe a toy or two and school supplies.
“It lets the community know we’re from the same group of people who lives next door to you,” he said. “They think we’re the bad guys, and (then) they see us doing something like that.”
The Fraternal Order of the Police, a nonprofit national organization that coordinates fund-raisers and provides benefits and legal support for police officers, organizes the program in New Hanover County. The FOP has conducted the fund-raiser in the county for about 10 years. Onslow-Pender County Lodge No. 68 started their back-to-school Shop With a Cop program in May, and will take the children shopping Aug 12.
Most of the project’s fund-raising is done over the phone. The calls are made by retired officers who don’t have the hectic bustle of an on-duty schedule. In New Hanover, the Lower Cape Fear Lodge No. 58 hires an outside company, Atlantic Advertising and Production, to make most of the calls.
People in the community are supportive of the program, Robinson said, once they know what the program is. “It’s the generous contribution of people in the community that support law enforcement,” Robinson said.
The Department of Social Services selects the children in the area who need a little help along the way.
“It might be a family in which the grandparent is raising a grandchild,” said Faye Smith, supervisor of social work in the social services department. “It’s just little bit of additional support for the family.”
The aid does not go only to families who are already receiving financial assistance from the department of social services, and it can even go to families where both parents are working.
The parents, children and cops all meet up and head over to the store.
All together, they wander the aisles, picking out jackets, clothes and this time of year - school supplies.
“The children seem to be really excited about it,” Smith said. “It’s a fun time.”
The officers help the families stay within in their budget for each child. “We go around with them to get to know them” Robinson said.
Sometimes they also have to keep the families on track for what they’re supposed to be buying. The children, for example, might want four video games and only one jacket for school. Or the family might see a good-looking color TV that is oh-so-enticing, but probably won’t help out with long division.
Then everybody goes through the check-out line reserved for Shop With A Cop. When everyone is rung up together there’s one big, long receipt.
“We don’t want people to go back through and take advantage of the money,” Robinson said. Parents, he said, have returned the items before to get some of the money or to make an exchange.
But the thank yous and the hugs are a highlight of the shopping endeavor.
“A simple thank you - how far that really goes,” Robinson said. “It’s not often in our profession that we get too many thank yous.”
Sometimes he has seen some of the children out in the community wearing clothes bought through the program and it just feels good to see, he said. It makes Robinson remember why he’s an officer in the first place: to help people.
Shop With A Cop can reinforce that idea with the young people as well, who may have had disciplinary problems in the past and viewed law enforcement in a negative light.
“The kids out there are lost and need help,” Robinson said. “We want them to call to us and we’ll help them.”
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