DOWNEY - In a joint-showing of holiday cheer, Downey Police officers and several other businesses and organizations came together to help put presents under some less-fortunate Christmas Trees.

Around 20 in-need students and their families were paired with officers of the Downey Police Department to go on a holiday shopping spree last week.

Detective Timothy McCarthy, secretary for Downey Police Officer’s Association, described the event as a “community effort.”

“It was our effort as an organization to show the community that there’s more to just public safety, we’re also here to try to improve quality of life,” said McCarthy. “We had amazing support from the community.”

Students were selected with the assistance of Downey Unified School District, ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade.

The day started with breakfast sponsored by and held at the Elks Lodge, including donations from Chick-fil-A, Tropicana, and Coke.

Once finished with breakfast, each child was encouraged to speak with officers and check out some of their equipment and vehicles. Santa and Mrs. Clause were also on hand with sleigh in tow to take pictures and visit with families.

Children and their families were then piled into a bus and were escorted to Walmart by a substantially sized police motorcade, complete with sirens and lights blazing.

“We had about 15 cars including the school and Santa Clause,” said McCarthy. “That’s a highlight for these kids; to come to Walmart in style…”

Upon arrival, each family received a warm welcome as they headed off in search of holiday gifts, courtesy of the Police Officer’s Association.

“We provided $150 per kid to go inside and shop and get their gifts,” said McCarthy.

However, many of the kids walked out of Walmart with more than $150 worth of gifts and goodies.

“The officers were entitled to come out of pocket if they wanted to,” said McCarthy. “Every officer has come out of pocket so far to make sure that [the kids] got all the gifts that they wanted.”

Gift wrapping help was also made available once purchases were made. It wasn’t just the kids, however, who walked out with a bag of holiday cheer.

“The parents that are accompanying them are going to walk away with a gift bag,” said McCarthy. “That gift bag will have $100 grocery card to Ralph’s to go do some holiday shopping for the groceries. They’re also going to have some coupons from Boy’s Burgers here in town, Chick-fil-A donated a ton of gift cards, In-n-Out donated gift cards, and Del Rio Lanes provided a family four pack for all the families to go bowling for free. So, every family will walk away with something as well.”

Along with the happy parents and kids, the officers also reaped a fair share of positive morale from the experience.

“The officers all had a smile on their face when they were turning their lights on and knowing we were doing it for a good cause,” said McCarthy. “It was a big production, but fortunately everybody was a big participant in this and it made it go smooth.”

Kids go holiday shopping with Downey Police Department