Published on Sunday, December 17, 2006
in the Leesburg Daily Commercial

Kids, cops go shopping for presents

MOUNT DORA - Seven-year-old Arianna Walker could barely contain herself from the excitement of shopping at Mount Dora's Wal-Mart on Saturday morning with a Florida Highway Patrol trooper at her side.

Her smile spread broadly across her freckled face, despite the fading scars from a pit bull attack more than a year ago.

Arianna, a red-headed first grader, had plenty on her mind as she pondered the toy aisles and considered her younger sister at home.

"I got a lot of Barbie dolls and I don't know where to put them," Arianna told Trooper Kim Miller.

The two went in search of a toy box with the girl's mother, Amy Neace of Tavares, tagging along and pushing the shopping cart.

"I told my sister I would buy her something," said Arianna, whose 5-year-old sister's brain cancer is in remission. "I get to share my stuff with my sister."

Arianna also wanted to use some of the $100 to buy her mother a Christmas present.

Neace didn't have a choice in the matter. "Whatever you want to get, mommy doesn't say anything."

That's how "Shop with a Cop" works, said organizer Pete Peterson, president of Lake County Police Charities.

"I raised my kids myself as a police officer," said Peterson, a retired police officer. "I know the things they did without. I said if there was ever a time I could help, it would be a blessing."

That was six years ago.

More than 205 children led officers from most police agencies in Lake County, including the Lake County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Highway Patrol, around mostly the toy aisles, filling carts with $100 worth of gifts. Local officers and deputies choose children they may have met during their work or investigations.

"The main purpose is to go shop with an officer," Peterson said. "The kids don't (usually) get to interact with police. This is a way to show them cops ain't bad.

"There's a lot of sad cases and needy cases," he said.

Peterson said he recalled one angry man telling his family, which included several small children, that they simply would not celebrate Christmas one year - as punishment.

"That's what this is about - making one day happy," Peterson said.

Arianna, who is still afraid of dogs, wouldn't stop talking about her big day of shopping.

"I heard about it for two weeks," Neace said.

Bernard Williams' four children led officers through aisles.

"I think it's amazing," he said. "You get the kids meeting with law enforcement. They're learning to go in the right direction at an early age."

Laquanda Coachman, a Florida Department of Transportation officer, may have caught a little too much of Saturday's excitement. One girl began scratching her chin, in deep thought, after learning she had $28 left on her card.

Holding the card in the air, Coachman declared to the girl: "Let's go shopping. Let's go spend money."

Miller and Arianna were in the adjacent check-out lane. "It does make you appreciate what you have," Miller said.

Lake County Sheriff Gary Borders stood in the long line of uniformed officers, chatting with a couple of deputies. Last year, he bought a bicycle out of his own money for a boy.

"You do it for the excitement in the kids," he said.

The organization raises money through donations.