Edwardsville Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 244 Once Again Warms Hearts of Kids With 'Christmas with a Cop'

EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 244 "Christmas with a Cop" was once again a highlight of the year for the officers. The 10th annual event was held at the Edwardsville Target this past Saturday, Dec. 14.

The program began at the Edwardsville Public Safety Building with 25 preselected children with a breakfast cooked by the police officers. Then, the children were escorted in police cars to Target, where they were paired with an officer to purchase gifts for the holidays. After all the gifts were purchased, the children and the officers went to a gift wrapping table where the items were wrapped by volunteers.

"We were able to help out 25 kids this year with $250 for shopping for themselves and gifts for family," Edwardsville Police Officer Jarrod Sprinkle said. "We also for the first-time ever gave them a food basket including a gift card for a ham from Goshen Butcher Shop. This wouldn't have been possible without local sponsors like Schnucks, Goshen Butcher Shop and Kloss Furniture. One family told us that they would not have been able to have Christmas this year without this event. We started the morning by cooking them pancakes, eggs, and bacon. Target, as always helped a lot, too, in the day."

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

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