Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office Christmas program puts smiles on children’s faces

ALBANY — Ask any child what his or her favorite holiday is, and most will say Christmas.

Christmas is, after all, that one magical day a year when dreams can come true, when the impossible can become possible, and when the world seems brighter, cleaner and better than normal. Christmas is a time to set aside selfish pursuits of personal gain, to let go of negativity and hate, and to embrace charity, joy, love and faith. By doing so, the spirit of Christmas is manifested in the physical world.

On Tuesday, the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office embodied that spirit as agency personnel embarked on the 14th annual charity Shop With the Sheriff program.

Throughout the year, the sheriff’s office, working with counselors, teachers and administrators within the local school system, identify children who are truly in need.

According to Sheriff Kevin Sproul, the children chosen to participate in the Shop With the Sheriff program are children who are at extreme risk of having no Christmas.

“These kids come from situations that are not of their own fault, and we try to help,” Sproul said. “So at the beginning of each school year, someone from our office visits the various schools and they get with the principals, the counselors and the teachers to find children who really need some help for Christmas. They visit every school. We have high schoolers, middle schoolers and elementary school students here. We don’t pick and choose which grade level; it is K-12.”

After the list is compiled, a member of the sheriff’s office will visit the family to make the final determination whether to include the child in the program, according to Sproul.

“We usually get a pretty lengthy list, and Lt. Terron Hayes will go meet with the families and do an assessment,” the sheriff said. “He will screen and vet the children. Even though this is a worthy cause, we still have people who try to pull scams. They want their kids to go shopping, and then they want to get everything from the child and try to return it to get the money back. We’ve had incidents like that in the past. So we have to screen everything.”

Twenty-two children were present Tuesday, but a total of 43 would receive gifts.

“For various reasons, the others couldn’t be with us today,” Sproul said. “But we have purchased or will be purchasing items for them for Christmas.”

According to Sproul, all funding for the event comes from donations and money raised throughout the year.

“We have people from civic groups and individuals within the community that make contributions and donate,” he said. “It really starts back in April with our golf tournament, and we gather all of our money during the year and put it toward this special event and a couple of others during the year. We partner with Kmart, and this year each child will get $110 to spend on whatever they want.

“Believe it or not, most of the kids most of the time want to buy something for somebody else. They don’t even think about themselves. For a lot of them, this is the first time in their lives when they have the opportunity to buy a gift for someone they love.”

Before the shopping began at Kmart on Tuesday, the event kicked off at Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse on Dawson Road around 10:45 a.m. Each child was paired with an officer/buddy and was seated to enjoy a holiday feast, courtesy of owner Han Kim.

“Mr. Kim contacted us several years ago wanting to be a part of the program at no charge,” said Sproul. “Now, not only does he feed the kids, but he feeds the deputy sheriffs and the adult staff who are with them. He (Kim) said that he gets a blessing out of this by giving back to the community. Most of the children have never been to a restaurant such as this. We also have Coroner Michael Fowler, who has become a part of the program over the last few years and made some monetary donations. (He) likes to volunteer.”

After lunch the children, full of food and full of smiles, were transported to Kmart on Dawson Road, where the fun really began.

“My belief is that God gave his greatest gift in Jesus to us, and we should give back to others in the community,” Sproul said. “It is just a blessing, and I get so much out of it because there are many days that I wake up as the sheriff and have things going south. You kind of wish that day that you weren’t the sheriff, but this is one of those days that I just can’t wait to get on the calendar every year. I get so excited for it.”