Williamson County underprivileged children not forgotten
By TOM CHEREDAR, Herald Intern
news@williamsonherald.com
Around 40 children from underprivileged families in Williamson County received new clothing and school supplies on Sunday courtesy of a program called “Shop with a Cop.”
Officers from the Fraternal Order of Police Morris Heithcock Lodge gathered at the Wal-Mart located off of Mallory Lane in Franklin to help the young students purchase school supplies for the coming year.
The program spent $7,000, roughly $200 per child, which was raised by donations from local businesses, individuals in the community and phone solicitation efforts from the Morris Heithcock Lodge which includes officers from Brentwood, Franklin, Williamson County Sheriff’s Department and Davidson County’s Warrant Department.
“It’s always great to see police officers from other cities coming together with smiles on their face to help out people in the community that need it,” said Brentwood Detective Adrian Breedlove, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Officers who sponsors the program.
The organization, which usually holds the “Shops with a Cop” event at Christmas, decided to expand this year to include a new event for back to school in order to reach more families in need.
Students ranged from kindergarteners to sophomores but the majority of them were in elementary school, according to Breedlove.
“The families were very, very thankful,” said Breedlove. “One family recently had their house burned down, all clothes burned up possessions destroyed, so they didn’t have anything.”
Several of the children who attended came from families in which grandparents were their primary caretakers, Breedlove said.
“One man was raising his three grandsons, just on Social Security,” he said.
One of the 35 lodge members in attendance, Brentwood Police Officer Jarrod Webb donated his time without hesitation after participating in the Christmas event previously.
“I’m glad to be a part of it,” said Webb. “I helped two kids from a family of three, so it was nice to see their eyes light up about going back to school with the supplies they need.”
The children, both boys in first and second grade shared their interest of super-heroes such as Batman and Spider-Man, which would have dominated their purchases if not for some guidance by Webb, he said.
Webb followed the children and their family with a calculator to keep track of spending during the event and away from the toys.
“It was challenging at times,” said Webb, who helped them make decisions about clothing. “With kids, they want to put pink with blues; yellows with reds, so its kind of hard.”
Webb said he hopes the program will give the children an incentive for wanting to going to school and a better perception of police officers.
“It’s a great program and it brings to light that even though Williamson County has a lot of money, they still help with underprivileged children.”
The lodge got most of the children’s names from talking to school administrators and guidance councilors but could help more underprivileged families if more people in the community knew about what the “Shop with a Cop” program does, according to Webb.
“We don’t have a whole lot of publicity,” said Webb. “If there was more awareness, more families would be bringing their kids.”
Posted on: 8/24/2006
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