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YPD helps Santa give out gifts
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Santa Claus made some of his rounds early this year through the city, leaving presents and tears in his wake.
Tears of gratitude flowed Thursday at each stop as officers with the police department’s Community Police Unit delivered toys that were donated earlier this month as part of the unit’s Fill A Cruiser event.
Children dove into the wrapping paper while parents cried. One parent, Brandy Shaw of North Belle Vista Avenue, could not talk as her children were unwrapping their gifts.
“I’m speechless,” Shaw said.
Besides the gifts children opened, some extras were left for parents so they will have something to give their kids Christmas morning.
Although most of those who were visited Thursday knew they would be getting some kind of help, they had no idea how much. But at the first stop of the day on Salt Springs Road, Ann Marino had no idea anyone was coming and burst into tears when Santa and several police officers came in bearing gifts.
“It’s a real surprise,” Marino said.
The officers also gave a bike to Madison, the daughter of Carrie Eckert, who had spent her own money on presents for the event because she wanted to help someone who was less fortunate than her.
When Madison delivered the presents to the Fill A Cruiser site, she saw a bicycle that she really liked, so the officers decided to give the bike to her as a thank you.
Eckert was stunned.
“She was just asking for a bike, too,” Eckert said while crying.
Eckert said she was trying to teach her daughter how Christmas is about forgiving, giving and sacrificing, and was pleased she used her own money to get toys.
“She wanted to get gifts for kids who don’t have as much as she does,” Eckert said.
Officers George Wallace and Shawna-Cie Ott helped organize the giveaway. They said they encounter people on their beats or get calls from social-service agencies or relatives of people who can use the help.
Jessica Dickerson, who received gift cards last week that a donor gave the department, got gifts Thursday for all seven of her children.
The gift cards came in handy to help her family get back on their feet after they lost their home earlier this year to a fire. They are now living in another home on the South Side that someone gave them.
Dickerson said she used the cards to buy things such as toothpaste and shower gel for the kids.
Tequila Jackson thanked police as her two children, Quiseauld, 4, and Vic’kye, 2, opened their toys as they sat on Santa’s lap in her home on Lakewood Avenue.
“I would really like to thank you for blessing my kids this Christmas,” Jackson said.
Members of the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office and the Canfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol also participated in Fill A Cruiser. On Wednesday, officers in the department’s patrol division gave toys away on their beats that were donated to the department by the Ironman Warehouse Gym on East Federal Street.