MUSCATINE, Iowa–In the spirit of the holidays, the Muscatine Police Department brings cheer to children in need through their Shop with a Cop outing. Over the course of two nights, officers take around 100 children shopping at Walmart to get gifts for themselves and for their family members, and to enjoy a tasty meal out. After moving to a drive through format due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the department elected to move back to an in person format this year. As the department celebrates 30 years of this holiday tradition, they look to continuing and improving it for years to come.

To ensure each of the children they take shopping gets enough money to make their purchases, the Muscatine Police Department starts their fundraising efforts earlier in the year. Through several impromptu donations from local businesses as well as positive responses to the mail fundraising campaign they did in November, the department raised enough funds both to cover all the costs of this year’s event and to provide seed money for next year.

Between their two evenings this year, the Muscatine Police Department took approximately 97 kids shopping with the help of 30 officers. In addition to getting to pick out gifts at Walmart, the kids also got to enjoy pizza and juice with the officers and to receive a very special goodie bag from Santa.

After a year that proved challenging for kids and adults alike, Officer Whitni Pena felt glad that the department could return Shop with a Cop to its traditional in person format. “This event is such a joy to so many families, it just wasn’t the same last year having to have the event virtual,” she shared: “Part of the fun of Shop with a Cop is getting that one-on-one time with each kid while shopping. I find it to also be a good time to engage the parents in conversations about the child.”

As always, Pena considered it a pleasure to get to help all of the kids participating and looks forward to continuing the Shop with a Cop tradition into the future. As she put it, “the smiles make all the hard work worth it.”

For many kids in need, Shop with a Cop not only allows them to pick out fun toys for themselves but also to get necessities such as warm winter outerwear. As the department starts thinking about next year’s Shop with a Cop, Pena hopes to devise a way for some of the funds they raise to go directly to getting kids winter gear so that they can put all of the shopping money they get towards fun items for themselves and their family members. “I want the children to get the most for the buck and think the least we can do is make sure the kids have hats and gloves,” mused Pena. Because changes such as this remain in the planning phase, she hopes to have more information to share next winter.