Police officers in West Liberty and Atalissa made the holidays just a little merrier for local children, hosting Shop with a Cop events.
For Atalissa, it was a community first, the school district helping select six youngsters who got to shop at Walmart in Muscatine on Dec. 23 after Samantha Schmidt and officer Matt Shook put together a short notice event and collected over $700 from donors while Newt's Cafe in Nichols provided lunch for the group.
Shook said the program will expand next year to include more children. The mayor called it a "great way for our local kids to meet our officer and really know who he is besides seeing someone drive by in a police car."
Schmidt said Atalissa may be small, but there are a lot of children in the community that need support, noting he hopes this is the first of "many other kid and family focused projects in the future."
In the meanwhile, West Liberty's annual program aided 20 kids picked through the school district and although officers didn't shop with the youngsters this year, they shopped a wish list and spent $250 a kid, collected through donations throughout the year according to interim police chief Dave Lira. He said the pandemic made things a little different this year for the program.