Recently, officers from all across Kosciusko County converged on Meijer for a special detail. What was this detail that caught the attention of town, city, county, and state police officers? It was the annual Christmas with a Cop event sponsored by the Kosciusko County FOP Lodge #149 and hosted by our Warsaw Meijer Store.
Local law enforcement was not spared the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, so like most functions this year, we did things a bit different. Instead of a one-night event where officers meet with children and shop at Meijer, this year officers took names of children and shopped in the evening throughout last week. After shopping, arrangements were made to transport the clothing and toys to homes, taking every safety precaution during this difficult time. Officers found free time in the evenings to accomplish this mission.
In all, the Kosciusko County FOP Lodge #149 was able to bring gifts to 95 children throughout our county, between the ages of 4-12. While the activity of this detail was much different than years past, we were pleased to see the same outcome; smiles on the faces of children that have found themselves in difficult situations over this past year.
While we want to thank all of our local law enforcement that participated in this event, it is even more important to thank our community who generously supports FOP Lodge #149 through private donations, as well as being a part of our fundraising efforts. By far, our biggest money maker that helps our community’s girls and boys is the FOP Lodge #149 Annual Golf Outing. We could not accomplish this goal without all of those willing to support us financially. We would be remiss not to give a special thanks to the management and staff of Meijer. They always roll out the red carpet for us and are a huge help in making this detail successful.
If anyone wishes to support this endeavor in the future, we encourage all to follow us on social media for upcoming events. On behalf of all of your local law enforcement FOP members, we are thankful for the honor to serve our community in this manner. Furthermore, we wish our community a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year!
