Shop with a Cop (St. Mary's County)

[SD1492]

Just heard that Shop with a Cop for St. Mary's County will be happening next Saturday (12/18/2010). If I remember last year it was done in the Wal-Mart area. Just a heads up to all of those that go there on Saturday's for the normal shopping that it will be a mad house, but for a GREAT thing. Try to be patient if you go shopping that day. And to those that are making this happen, I want to THANK YOU.

 

[itsrequired]

Just heard that Shop with a Cop for St. Mary's County will be happening next Saturday (12/18/2010). If I remember last year it was done in the Wal-Mart area. Just a heads up to all of those that go there on Saturday's for the normal shopping that it will be a mad house, but for a GREAT thing. Try to be patient if you go shopping that day. And to those that are making this happen, I want to THANK YOU.

I'm helping with that. We are supposed to be there at 8:30 and we usually aren't there for more than an hour. I don't know how many kids are doing it, but there are usually about 90 to 100. I do it every year and they give us our own registers, so hopefully we won't be in many peoples way at that hour of the morning.

 

[desertrat]

I'm helping with that. We are supposed to be there at 8:30 and we usually aren't there for more than an hour. I don't know how many kids are doing it, but there are usually about 90 to 100. I do it every year and they give us our own registers, so hopefully we won't be in many peoples way at that hour of the morning.

It is a good thing. Never saw so many police cars in one place at once.

 

[desertrat]

Just heard that Shop with a Cop for St. Mary's County will be happening next Saturday (12/18/2010). If I remember last year it was done in the Wal-Mart area. Just a heads up to all of those that go there on Saturday's for the normal shopping that it will be a mad house, but for a GREAT thing. Try to be patient if you go shopping that day. And to those that are making this happen, I want to THANK YOU.

But thanks for the warning.

 

[letmetellyou]

It's an awsome sight! I'll have to get my coffee and watch from Starbucks. Kudo's to all involved.

 

[SoccerMom2]

I think this is a great thing.

 

[rdytogo]

What is it?

 

[Detective]

What is it?

The Shop with a Cop organization is a non-profit organization made up of the Fraternal Order of Police and Optimist Clubs of St. Mary's County. It was started nine years ago by a guy named Joe Stanalonis who is still the Chairman.

What we do is enlist law enforcement volunteers from St. Mary's County to take kids who are a little down on their luck Christmas shopping and shopping when it is time to go back to school.

We are a 501c3 non profit and get our money through donations from the community. Next Saturday we will be taking over 100 kids shopping with the help of about 10 different police agencies including, the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office, Maryland State Police, Department of Natural Resources, Park Rangers, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Pax River DOD, Capitol Police, FBI, ATF, Bay Dist. F/D. USCG, and PGPD.

We are still taking donations, if you would like to donate you can contact me at the SMCSO.

Have a great Christmas!

 

[Detective]

Good morning,

On December 18th we held our 8th annual St. Mary's County Shop with a Cop program. This year the program helped 124 children from all over St. Mary's with their Christmas needs. 95 police officers picked up the children and delivered them to Wal Mart at 9 a.m. in one of our largest convoy's ever with lights and sirens blaring. The children were each given $200 to spend and many of them shopped for several hours, purchasing items for both themselves and their families. Afterward, the police took the children to the St. Mary's County Fairgrounds where the Optimist provided them with a hot breakfast and wrapped all of their gifts for Christmas. THANK YOU to all of the police officers who gave up part of their Saturday before Christmas to make this a special day for the children. Also, THANK YOU to everyone who came out and helped with the set up, wrapping, and clean up. We were able to get everything wrapped and cleaned up by 1 p.m. and the children had a terrific time. Finally, a BIG THANKS to everyone who donated money or helped with the fund-raiser(s) that we held over the past year. We couldn't do the program without your support. This year we spent approximately $25,000 at the Wal Mart on gifts and wrapping supplies.

This message was sent to me from Joe Stanalonis, the Chairman of St. Mary's County Shop with a Cop program.

 

[ginwoman]

Wow, sounds like a great success.

 

[desertrat]

Wow, sounds like a great success.

I missed it, well sort of. I had been carrying my camera during the snow waiting for some good shots which I never got. So I left it home an my way to Lowes and had ample opportunity to catch a seemingly unending line of every type of law enforcment vehicle heading down 235, lights flashing. Sat through three ligh cycles waiting for them to pass and I think most of them already had. Sure saw a lot of unusual unmarked vehicles with hidden lights.
A white pickup and a full size van, for two. No antennas etc. Maybe private vehicles of LEs?

 

[nomoney]

Just curious, does Walmart give you guys discounts at all?

 

[itsrequired]

Just curious, does Walmart give you guys discounts at all?

I did it and had a lot of fun. I don't know if they give us a discount, I think they do though. They give us our own registers so we don't tie up the store. I'm pretty sure that the organization is tax exempt, so they don't pay that.

 

[ChattyCat]

Shop with a cop

Good morning,

On December 18th we held our 8th annual St. Mary's County Shop with a Cop program. This year the program helped 124 children from all over St. Mary's with their Christmas needs. 95 police officers picked up the children and delivered them to Wal Mart at 9 a.m. in one of our largest convoy's ever with lights and sirens blaring. The children were each given $200 to spend and many of them shopped for several hours, purchasing items for both themselves and their families. Afterward, the police took the children to the St. Mary's County Fairgrounds where the Optimist provided them with a hot breakfast and wrapped all of their gifts for Christmas. THANK YOU to all of the police officers who gave up part of their Saturday before Christmas to make this a special day for the children. Also, THANK YOU to everyone who came out and helped with the set up, wrapping, and clean up. We were able to get everything wrapped and cleaned up by 1 p.m. and the children had a terrific time. Finally, a BIG THANKS to everyone who donated money or helped with the fund-raiser(s) that we held over the past year. We couldn't do the program without your support. This year we spent approximately $25,000 at the Wal Mart on gifts and wrapping supplies.

This message was sent to me from Joe Stanalonis, the Chairman of St. Mary's County Shop with a Cop program.

Awesome job by the county's finest!

 

[itsbob]

Just curious, does Walmart give you guys discounts at all?

I wanted to ask the same question.

Because 25K is a HUGE success for Wal-Mart, and nobody else.

We did donate, think it's a good program on several levels, and they actively came up to us, introduced themselves and what they were doing in PUBLIC (they didn't bother me on the phone) and we were waiting for our food at Red Robin so no, they didn't bother us at all.

Despite the answer to the above, we'll donate again next year too!