Above: Captain Eric Tonder of the Fairmont Police Department, along with other officers, check out at Walmart in Fairmont on Tuesday. The officers had been shopping for local families during the “Shop with a Cop” event.

FAIRMONT– In keeping with traditions, Fairmont Police Department’s annual Shop with a Cop event took place on Tuesday. This year’s event saw some changes, some very good changes.

Sergeant Jaime Bleess said they shopped for seven families this year. Between those seven families, there were 24 children.

Bleess said the recipients are families that members of the department have met and gotten to know or know of through living in the community who need extra help.

“It’s not really a formal application process, we just pick them,” Bleess said.

In past years, the children would go to the store with officers and pick out gifts for themselves and their family. Last year, because of Covid restrictions, officers went shopping alone to minimize contact. That route was chosen again this year.

Bleess met with the mothers of each family and let them know their family was selected. He then asked what the kids wanted to ensure they’re picking out desired items.

Bleess said Shop with a Cop is in its 12th year. It was started locally by Brad Buhmann, a long-time police officer. While Buhmann is retired now, working as the community service officer, he still partakes in the event.

Buhmann explained why Shop with a Cop was first started.

“The department could see that there were a lot of families out there who were in need but were too proud to ask for any help.”

The first year they had a $500 budget to work with so spent about $100 on each child. The money would come from the Fairmont Police Officer Association donations, Fairmont Lions Club and individual donors.

Bleess said this year they approached Walmart and asked for a $1,000 grant and Walmart came back at them with a $2,000 grant.

“In years past we’ve had officer’s families volunteer to wrap gifts. This year Walmart staff is wrapping them,” Bleess said.

Emily, a coach at Walmart in Fairmont, said, “some are associates currently on the clock, others are associates who volunteered to come in on their own time.”

When asked about Walmart’s generosity, she said, “anything we can do to give back to the community. That’s what Walmart’s all about.”

Bleess said Walmart employees also put together a collection of their own money and assembled Christmas food baskets to give to each of the seven families.

“That’s on top of the $2,000 that corporate gave us,” Bleess said.

The Fairmont Lions Club also donated money to the cause this year.

“The neat thing about this program is how much it’s grown,” Bleess said. “We usually have four or five kids and four or five cops. This year we have 14 cops here shopping for 24 kids.”

After the shopping was done and the presents were wrapped, officers packed up their squad cars and delivered the gifts to the families.

Bleess said ultimately police officers get into the profession to help people, and often times they end up helping people on their worst day.

“This year we had the highest turnout of officers participating because I think we’re all excited to help people on a good day. It was as big of a gift for us as it was for the families. This was a good way for us to end our year,” he said.