ACCPD Distributes Gifts to Over 100 Children

Senior Police Officer Jerry Johnson from ACCPD’s Community Outreach Division played Santa for many children duringt's sixth annual Shop With a Cop programreceives a look of admiration from a child during ACCPD’s Shop with a Cop program

Even the Covid-19 virus outbreak could not prevent the Athens-Clarke County Police Department from completing its sixth annual Shop with a Cop program. On Dec. 16 and 17, ACCPD officers delivered smiles to over 100 children and parents through the program.

Instead of officers and children shopping together, this year children provided a wish list of gifts they wanted for Christmas. Members of our Community Outreach Division and ACCPD volunteers shopped from these lists and officers delivered the wrapped presents to the children and parents at their residences. Each child’s limit was $100.

ACCPD’s program was expanded this year to include three ACC families. Each family had a $500 limit for gifts. Children and families were selected by the Clarke County School District.

Christmas came a little early for this family thanks to the ACCPD Shop With a Cop program

“The Athens-Clarke Police Foundation is the reason our Shop With a Cop program is so successful,” Police Chief Cleveland Spruill said. “Their generosity brought smiles not only to the children but their parents as well.”

SPO Jerry Johnson brout a bicycle and other gifts to this family as part of ACCPD's Shop With a Cop program

On December 16th, several members of the Athens-Clarke Police Foundation presented the ACCPD a check for $12,500 to fund Shop With a Cop. The foundation is a collaboration of local business, civic, and community leaders dedicated to giving back to the men and women of law enforcement within Athens Clarke County. For additional information about the foundation, visit their website at https://www.athenscpf.org/.

Athens-Clarke Police Foundation (ACPF) board members present a $12,500 check for ACCPD’s Shop with a Cop program; from left to right, Deputy Chief Keith Kelley, Deputy Chief Jerry Saulters, Chief of Police Cleveland Spruill, ACPF board members Joel Gregory, Kathy Hoard, Steve Middlebrooks, and Deputy Chief Jeff Clark.

“Shop With a Cop is a key component of our community outreach efforts and I’m grateful for the work of our Community Outreach Division and ACCPD volunteers as well as the assistance from Academy Sports, Clarke County School District, James Scott- Executive Director of the Sparrows Nest, and Dr. Wilson Lattimore Jr., Pastor of Chestnut Grove Baptist Church,” Spruill said.