Elementary Schoolers “Shop with a Cop”

‘Tis the season of giving; and some local law enforcement got into the holiday spirit earlier this month with some elementary school children in the community.

Morris Grove Elementary School Principal Amy Rickard says she was approached by Carrboro Police to see if students would be interested in a field trip – a trip to the store to “Shop with a Cop.”

“We had 19 students who were able to go on the field trip,” she says. “And five different police department organizations – the Carrboro Police Department, Chapel Hill Police, Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Campus Police, and the Hospital Police.”

Rickard says the list of children chosen to participate was determined by the school’s social worker, and that the children went shopping with the off-duty officers at the Walmart in Hillsborough.

“The Chapel Hill Optimist Club donated a $75 gift card for every child,” she says. “We spent a little more than an hour at the Walmart, and they got to shop with their cop.”

Rickard adds that seeing the smiles on the children’s faces was a wonderful moment and the effects lingered around the school.

“They were very excited. Most of them (went) around (for days) wearing their police badges that they gave them,” she says.

Rickard calls the experience one of the best field trips that she’s ever been on.

She says there were no rules about the purchases the children could make and many of them bought items for their siblings – in addition to an item or two for themselves.