Joliet police helping bring holiday gifts, food to those in need

Joliet — The Joliet Police Department is getting in the Christmas spirit by giving back to the community.

On Saturday, the department hosted its 34th annual “Santa’s Cops” event that provided 85 local kids the opportunity to go Christmas shopping for themselves and their families.

“The kids for the event are selected through partnerships with our Neighborhood Oriented Policing Team,” Public Affairs Sgt. Dwayne English said. “They get input from the schools and other community organizations like the Big Brothers Big Sisters program to identify kids in need.”

The children meet up with officers and members of the Joliet Police Department staff, as well as Santa Claus, early in the morning at Walmart and are treated to breakfast courtesy of Dunkin Donuts before each child is paired with a member of the police department to go shopping.

“When it’s time to go shopping, the kids grab a cart and head wherever they want in the store,” English said. “Usually it’s to the toy department, but some of the kids go for clothes. They’re able to choose whatever they’d like and every year these children make the choices to shop for their families as well as themselves.

“It’s very heartwarming that while the focus is on them, their focus is on the people they love,” English said. “They’ll pick stuff for themselves, but a lot of them insist on buying stuff for their parents and siblings too. It gives us a great feeling, and it’s part of why we continue to invest in this program.”

The police department fundraises throughout the year for the Santa’s Cops event and uses the funds to buy Walmart gift cards, which are then used to buy the gifts for the children. This year, each participating child was allowed to spend $175 in their morning shopping sprees.

“We try to make it a fun morning and I think we do a good job of it,” English said. “We look forward to it every year.”

“It’s great to see, because it’s important to make connections with the community, not just with the citizens, but with the groups who help support them too.”

—  Sgt. Dwayne English, public affairs for Joliet Police Department

While the Santa’s Cops event has concluded for 2023, the JPD’s other holiday collection is still ongoing.

The “Pack the Paddy Wagon” food drive is in its fifth year at the department and with the goal of collecting non-perishable food items for the Salvation Army food pantry in downtown Joliet.

Both Joliet police stations began collecting for the food drive in early November and will continue to do so until Dec. 20.

“It’s not just food we collect. We also accept toiletries, and we’ve gotten a few blankets donated this year already,” English said. “Once the collection is done on the 20th, we take everything down to the Salvation Army and help them unload it all. Chief (William) Evans and our administration help with the delivery every year, so we can work on keeping that great partnership with the Salvation Army.”

English estimated that the department delivers “several hundred pounds of food” each year to the Salvation Army, most of which comes in in the last week to ten days of the collection.

“We always see a heavy push of donations come in in the final few days,” English said. “It’s great to see, because it’s important to make connections with the community, not just with the citizens, but with the groups who help support them too.”

Anyone who would like to contribute to the Pack the Paddy Wagon food collection can drop off donations of non-perishable food items or toiletries to the main Joliet Police Station at 150 W. Washington St. between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. any day of the week, or at the West Sub-station at 7196 Caton Farm Road on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.