‘Shop with a Cop’ helps children with holiday gift purchases

Instead of patrolling the streets in their squad cars Saturday morning, officers with the Newton Police Department were maneuvering shopping carts through the toy aisles of the Newton Walmart Supercenter with the help of their young partners for the annual “Shop with a Cop” program.

Each officer was led around the store by one of eight children and tasked with helping them complete their Christmas list while remaining within the $100 to $125 budget for every kid. In addition to Walmart, Shop With A Cop includes partnerships with United Way of Jasper County, Heart of Iowa Regional Transit Agency, the Masonic Lodge and Pizza Ranch.

The kids are treated to a pizza lunch and a Christmas gift wrapping session once the shopping concludes. “Shop with a Cop” is a nationwide program designed to help children in need and develop positive relationships with local law enforcement officials. Newton Police Department has opted into the program for 13 years.

While a majority of the officers made a bee-line toward the toy aisle, school resource officer Julie Britton knelt down beside her kid and created a game plan — or rather a physical Christmas list.

Britton asked the child she was paired with questions about her family members and quickly came up with a list of presents to seek out. From her almost five years of experience participating in “Shop with a Cop,” Britton said this method is a lot easier “instead of wandering around back and forth” through the aisles.

"(We are) figuring out who we're buying for, especially who lives in the household," Britton said. "Then we can figure out kind of how much we can allocate toward each individual."

As the pair finds the right kinds of gifts for parents, siblings and grandparents, the next person the children get to shop for is themselves, but oftentimes it is an afterthought as many want to think of giving someone else a present. Officer Jon Schuler said that is a common find among the children involved in the program.

“This is probably my fifth or fourth year doing this and it seems like every year when you ask the kids, ‘What do you want?’ or ‘Who are we buying for?’ they immediately go for family members,” Schuler said. “It’s kind of special and unique being that a lot of times they don’t care about (buying presents for) themselves — they want to spend it on the family members.”

Which is exactly what happened Saturday morning, as Schuler pushed a cart around with his “Shop with a Cop” kid, Roni, who wanted to pick out gifts for her sisters. Peering at the all the toys and oddities packed onto the shelves of each aisle, Roni tapped her index finger on her lips and thought carefully about what she wanted to get for her relatives.

All the while, Schuler and his fellow officers kept careful track of the dollar amounts as gifts of all sizes dropped into their carts. With only a certain amount of money to spend, officers make sure the children know to be selective with their purchases. Most of the time, Schuler said, the kids are very understanding of the cash limits.

“You can kind of break it down to (them) where if you get this one thing, then you can’t get these three or four others; or if you get three or four small things they’ll get more gifts to open,” Schuler said.

Near the end of the shopping spree, police officers and their pint-sized partners gathered around the outskirts of the toy aisle in Walmart and assessed their collection of presents. All eight kids were beaming, which is what Britton said she likes the most about the annual event.

“(It’s) being able to go out and shop with kids and see the excitement on their face being able to purchase something for them that they might not be able to get,” she said. “And they’re very excited about getting presents for their family — something that they wouldn’t have an opportunity to do so.”

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com