Funds raised will allow officers to take kids to Target
Published in the Oct. 14-27, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Photo by Marty Cheek
Morgan Hill Police Department Sgt. Carlos Guerrero encourages residents to help the MHPOA raise money for Shop With a Cop event for kids.
Morgan Hill cops want to take local kids on a Target shopping trip.
For many local families, the only time when children see police officers is during a stressful situation, creating a sense of anxiety in youngsters toward the first responders. The Morgan Hill Police Officer Association wants to change that perception by raising money for its inaugural “Shop With a Cop” event.
The MHPOA’s Charitable Foundation will host a golf tournament Friday Oct. 23 at Coyote Creek Golf Course and the money raised by the event will go to take children on a December shopping excursion at the Cochrane Commons Shopping Center’s Target store during the holidays. Officers will help youngsters selected by Morgan Hill Unified School District school administrators to purchase up to $100 of gift items.
“For most officers, when we go to these homes, we always see the bad things,” said MHPD Sgt. Carlos Guerrero who is a co-organizer of the golf tournament with Sgt. Bill Norman. “And unfortunately, children see us during those bad times. And so the kids make that direct link back to the police officer. So we hope that with our charitable giving during the holidays, we can redirect that spotlight we have as officers as negative or bad.”
The MHPOA Charitable Foundation was started five years ago as a 501(c)5 nonprofit. It began its charitable activities by being involved in holiday toy drives for local youngsters.
“What we’ve done for the last three years is adopt families. It’s through Community Solutions and also through the county,” Guerrero said. “We adopt Morgan Hill families and buy all their gifts, including parents.”
The MHPOA was also involved in helping families with kids with cancer through St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
“For several years we would contact local families from Morgan Hill whose children have cancer and we would invite them here to the police department. We would get a wish list from them and their family,” Guerrero said.
The Morgan Hill Boy Scout Troop 799 would bring its Magic Ship of Christmas carrying Santa Claus who would help distribute wish-list gifts to the family members. The special celebration provided a connection between the families who didn’t know each other but had the common challenge of a sick child.
The children’s hospital encouraged the MHPOA to get involved helping other children in Morgan Hill and so the MHPOA decided to start a Shop With a Cop tradition this year, Guerrero said.
“They have plenty of donations,” he said. “For the last couple of years, they’ve told us, ‘Hey we’ve got more than enough, and if someone else can use it, go to them.’”
Although the foundation accepts money throughout the year for its charitable activities, its primary fundraiser is the Morgan Hill POA Charity “Fall Classic” Golf Tournament, Guerrero said. Many of the local police officers play in the tournament and pay the $150 registration fee just like everyone else, he said.
The fee includes the greens fee for 18 holes on the Coyote Creek Golf Club’s Jack Nicklaus Valley Course, a cart, a small bucket of range balls, box lunch, buffet dinner, winning team trophies, Hole-in-One Car Give Away, and Longest Drive/ Closest to the Pin. This year’s raffle prizes include high quality drivers, putters, golf bags, wedge sets, and range finders.
“It’s a little mental vacation from the everyday work that we do. Planning a golf tournament is not easy,” Guerrero said. “It’s a lot of work, but honestly, the way we look at it, for every $100 that comes in, that’s one more child who is going to have a good holiday. The more we see coming in the more excited we get… We try to raise as much as we can and then we give it all away. We’re very quiet about that. We don’t make a big splash about it.”
The annual golf tournament usually raises $5,000 to $6,000, but the MHPOA would like to increase that amount to the $10,000 or even $20,000 range to benefit the Shop With a Cop program it is developing. The organization is open to talking with sponsors who might help it meet that goal, Guerrero said.
“If we can get it into the $10,000 to $20,000 range, just think of how much more we can do,” he said. “How fun would it be to have 200 kids shopping. That would make it even more fun for us. We’re honestly looking for bigger sponsors, that’s the one key factor that we’re missing. We have a few thousand-dollar sponsors, but we don’t have the big sponsors.”
The Shop With a Cop started on the East Coast and spread across America. The San Jose Police Department does it and the Santa Clara County Sheriff Department use to do it, but this December will be the first time MHPD officers will take children for a shopping excursion for the holidays. The MHPOA will contact schools and ask them to select students who might benefit.
The number of students is based on how much money is raised in the fundraising process. The schools can select students based on financial need or through a contest.
Each child will get a $100 gift certificate. Parents are encouraged to come to the shopping trip but the MHPOA will ask them to let their child make his or her own selections in the store. The officers will help the child and make sure the total bill does not go over the $100 gift certificate amount.
“The officers are there only to guide because we don’t want the child spending $100 on gum or trash,” Guerrero said. “There will be some stipulations where they have to buy something warm — a jacket or a sweatshirt — a toy, something that’s a school supply item, and then they can pick a couple of things on their own.”
The important component of the fundraising and shopping trip is that the money will stay in Morgan Hill and help local families and children to have a more positive experience with a man or woman in uniform, he said.
“We hope that they really form a connection with the police officer, that they see that the police officer can be there during a positive time as well,” Guerrero said. “That is something we use to give back to the community. We noticed that there certainly is a need to connect with the community. We’re a small town and so why not connect?”
