Shop with Cop event a gift for police officers

One Saturday morning just before Christmas, many years ago, a Johnson County sheriff’s deputy and his wife had a special shopping trip planned.

Randy Werden and his wife were taking a little girl who had a lot of physical challenges to breakfast, then shopping for winter gear and toys. The child was a student in the class where his wife was a teacher’s aide.

Her family was struggling, and couldn’t bring her to the annual Shop with a Cop event, organized by the Johnson County Fraternal Order of Police. They picked her up and had a great day, and for years later, she would recognize him.

“It was almost like you were Santa Claus,” Werden said. “It was one of those that you knew you definitely made a difference, at least that year, and it definitely stuck with her.”

He has been taking children shopping and helping organize Shop with a Cop for more than 30 years, but is retiring from the sheriff’s office. Other members of the police organization have been taking on the organization of the program.

About 45 children are shopping with police officers today, and the officers are looking forward to the event as much as the children.

In some ways, Werden and the other police officers will feel a touch of selfishness today — like they are getting more out of the event than the children are — as they take the children around the Meijer store on State Road 135.

Here’s why: They’ll see the reaction of children who are getting toys they’ve never had before, such as a bicycle. Some of them will ask if they can pick out a gift to give to their mom or a brother.

“Those kids are special to me,” Werden said. “Even when these kids don’t have anything, they’re still thinking of others. That’s pretty refreshing.”

Sheriff’s deputy Damian Katt, who has been involved for about 15 years, started helping organize the event three years ago. This morning, he will watch the children eat donuts and see Santa Claus, and then pick out their gifts. He said the day is hugely rewarding as a police officer.

“It’s always just amazing to see their faces, and its almost disbelief sometimes that they get to pick some of this stuff out,” Katt said.

Or they ask if they can get a movie night for their family, so they’ll buy a frozen pizza and a movie, then the officers watch as they show their families what they got.

“It’s a good feeling,” Werden said. “Maybe you’ve at least brightened his life or her life up, at least for a short time anyways. You hope for better for them for the next year.”

The Shop with a Cop also builds traditions for police officers and their families, who often bring their own children with them to let them see how they can help and why giving is important. He encourages all officers to get involved in the organization and the event. Through the years, more than 1,000 children have had a merrier Christmas because of it.

Officers are often who children see when someone has gotten into trouble, gotten hurt or been in an accident, Katt said.

But not today.

“This is our chance to kind of show them that police aren’t the bad guys. We’re there to help the kids,” Werden said.

The Fraternal Order of Police, an organization of about 120 Johnson County police officers and sheriff’s deputies, raises money each year, but also counts on certain people and organizations who will donate year after year, specifically for Shop with a Cop.

“We’ve got a great community that definitely pitches in and helps,” Werden said.

The Fraternal Order of Police will also be delivering food baskets in the Greenwood area through the Good Cheer Fund today, and the Shop with a Cop program has its roots in the basket delivery. Decades ago, police officers who knew of families who needed food and gifts for their children would purchase the toys and add them to the food baskets, said sheriff’s deputy Tevis McLaughlin, president of the county Fraternal Order of Police. Through the years, Shop with a Cop took on its own life.

“In my opinion, without a doubt, the first and foremost thing I get out of it (Fraternal Order of Police membership) is Shop with a Cop,” McLaughlin said. Each year, at least one child’s story or comment, as simple as excitement at being able to look in the toy section of a store, will remind officers why they make Shop with a Cop a priority.

The effort became more organized through the years, and has grown to help more children in recent years. As little as five years ago, 20 to 30 children were participating.

First they’ll get hats, boots, coats or any other gear they need to stay warm this winter. Then they get to the toys, and in all, about $250 will be spent on each child.

“They’ve never let us down,” Werden said of the officers and their spouses who shop up on the last Saturday before Christmas to take the children in need shopping. “They’ve always been there in force.”