Photos and story by William Smith
Sirens
blared through Burlington and West Burlington Saturday morning (Dec.
11) as a long line of police vehicles snaked through city streets.
Burlington Police, West Burlington, the Des Moines County Sheriff's office,
and other local law enforcement vehicles lined up end-to-end, rolling
into Dick’s Sporting Goods just after 11 a.m.
As
the police officers exited their vehicles, 23 area third-graders popped
out of the passenger side doors with $100 gift cards in their possession and freedom to spend the money any way they liked.
The police were there to assist and to provide transportation.
That is, when they weren't breaking into foam sword fights with their young charges.
It
was the first of two stops for the returning Shop With A Cop event.
After leaving Dick's, the police procession cruised toward Walmart, the
degree of fanfare and sirens equally high. In many cases, the kids themselves were enthusiastically operating the sirens.
While
Shop With a Cop has been a national program for years, it wasn’t
started in Burlington until 2014 when city councilman Matt Rinker
approached now-retired Des Moines County Sheriff Mike Johnstone. The
duo quickly formed a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a board of
directors. The program is funded through a variety of local businesses
and agencies that contribute money throughout the year.
“This year we raised just over $4,500,” Rinker said.
The
police and kids did more than shop together. Earlier that morning, they
met at Black Hawk Elementary for an early lunch, some games, and bit of
bonding time.
Rinker said a more subdued
version of Shop With A Cop was held last year due to COVID-19, which
meant the cops had to shop by themselves. They did get to
deliver the gifts, however, with some help from Santa.
“This year, we are back to doing what we did before,” Rinker said with a grin.
