“Look I got a Little Pony named Twilight,” she said with a broad smile. “It’s fun. I didn’t even see the My Little Pony toys, because I was looking the other way. He (Pedersen) helped me.”
Santo was one of 34 second graders who were chosen by officials at Tracy Unified and Jefferson school districts to take part in the event.
The children were selected because they had endured a financial hardship or had displayed good citizenship at their respective schools.
Each child was given a $50 gift card donated by Walmart and distributed by the Tracy Police Department Volunteers In Police Services. Each child shopped with one of the 22 Tracy police officers who volunteered their time.
“It’s always a good reminder of how blessed we are,” said officer Octavio Lopez. “Kids are innocent and it only takes a minute to make a positive impact. It’s a good feeling.”
Children started their morning with a visit with Santa, played by chief of police, Gary Hampton.
Michelle Clark was all smiles as she watched her son Landen wait for his turn to meet Santa.
“I think this is awesome,” she said. “I told him he was doing it because he is doing so good in school. Now he thinks it pays to do good in school. He’s super excited.”
Then it was off to shopping with their assigned officer to search the toy aisles for the perfect gift.
Shelley Hill was accompanied by her 10-year-old son, Bailey Burrows, and his sister, Madison.
“I never heard about this before,” Hill said. “I don’t have lots of money so it’s cool. I’m a single mom. It’s great that these cops do this.”
With thousands of toys to choose from, some of the children found it hard to decide.
“The fun part is helping them pick out toys,” said Sgt. Tony Sheneman, who was happy his seven-year-old shopping partner had chosen a remote control police car. “They tell Santa what they want and then they forget. It’s hard to chose, because they are given the keys to a big toy store.”
At the conclusion of their shopping, the children had breakfast with the officers at McDonald’s, which donated all of the meals.
Cachu said his favorite part of the morning was getting a remote control motorcycle.
“It’s really fun to see the kids get excited,” said officer Steve Blair as he sat at McDonalds with seven-year-old Adrian Cachu. “The enjoyment on their face makes it all worth it.”
“I’ve been doing this since we started and it gets bigger every year,” said officer Tim Bauer, who helped seven-year-old Jesus Guterrez Jr. pick out a Lego SpongeBob and a remote control truck.
“It’s good for the kids to see us in a positive light,” Bauer said. “It’s the whole experience.”
Contact Denise Ellen Rizzo at 830-4225 or drizzo@tracypress.com.
Same to pcmiles, you two want to criticize the police, Chief, et al? Fine, that's your right and it's healthy to question our officials if we have concerns as citizens, however, as with dd's comment about Tom B's passing, this is not the time or place.
By the way, did either of you consider it might be a good idea for the police to interact with youth to maybe help prevent them from going on to being someone who loots banks in broad daylight?
If you two would like to share some of your ideas on crime prevention please do so, maybe they'll work out better than what the police are now doing.
Don’t you think your admonition of the police department improving its image “with honesty and integrity” in another fashion than “playing Santa Claus” might be applied to any demographic?
Is it any different when a parent buy's a Christmas gift for their child? All of sudden if it's purchased through a program like this, the kids are growing up too fast?
If you want to make an argument against kids growing up too fast let's have that discussion but this isn't the place and it's definitely not related in anyway to this story.
I'm with OG, say thanks and good job to everyone involved and appreciate it for the act of kindness which it is.
A very large group of people, not only those who make up the Tracy Police Department, band together for the common cause of making the lives of children who's families don't have the wherewithal to give those children much during the Christmas season and the first two comments are complaints.
To all the people who made this possible, GOOD JOB, and I wish all of you a Merry Christmas. Wish I could have found some way to help in this myself. Thanks to all of you for your compassion and service to humanity. Keep up the good work.
I can understand that but don't get too use ta it.
Ya might have missed th reason I write in this fashion an its actually in honor of a man who had a terrific positive influence on thousands of lives an quite frankly, his drawl was easier ta speak than ta write. Still, he wrote like he spoke.
In a very large part th original Ornley Gumfudgen, his actual name belive it or not, is responsible fer th life I live taday in a great many ways.
Sum thank I'm bein cantankerous or makin fun of those with little education. But truly, this is th way I attempt ta honor th man who meant so much ta so many people in th frank an down ta earth ways that he helped em without expectin anythang in return.
So please, don't be too hard on me fer th way I choose ta write cus it's my way of payin tribute ta th original Ornley Gumfudgen.
Ornley was a very educated man but quite unassumin.
I asked him one day why he spoke an wrote th way he did an he said it tended ta slow th thankin of folks down so they could better understand what he was tryin ta get across ta em without em first jumpin ta th wrong conclusion an havin ta deal with that. Made sense.
Merry Christmas ta ya.