Local Officers Shop Christmas Gifts for Children in Need

Members of the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office hit the aisles of the Evansville Meijer store on Tuesday to buy gifts from the Christmas wishlists of children in need.

With that story.

Picture about fifty kids running through the aisles here at miehgter -- that's what normally happens at the shop with a hero program but this year -- things have to be different -- due to the pandemic the program has been cheering up kids for over twenty years -- with shopping excursions moving from eastland mall to the east side walmart and this year -- at meijer with $200 worth of gift cards but instead of getting to guide the kids through the store as they excitedly pick out gifts for themselves this year - - law enforcement officers were left to the task -- each shopping for one boy and one girl -- buying everything from a new teddy bear to a clean pair of socks.

The donations are all going to children who are benefited from the arc crisis children's center and while officers are sad they are not able to have the fun experience of seeing the joy on the kids faces as they bought the items -- they are happy to still be able to participate in such an incredible giveback.

"kids obviously have a need and they been effected by the pandemic like all of us have by work and employment and some of the financial needs so hopefully we can offset that with some of the things we are doing here at miejer."

Now while the police officers weren't able to actually shop with the kids in person they did have a parade that started over at the civic center and ended at the arc where they were able to drop of those to kids in need reporting in