Early Christmas Gifts
Christmas came early this year for some children in DuPage County.
The DuPage County Sheriff’s Office usually holds a Shop with the Sheriff event where kids who are selected by their township assistance programs take a trip to a local retail store with a deputy.
This year due to COVID-19, the department had to change plans and asked families to submit their holiday wish lists instead.
“We really didn’t’ want to disappoint our DuPage County children. We do this every year, we’ve been doing this for many years,” said DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick. “It’s near and dear to our hearts so we opted to go with a very COVID-friendly way of doing this.”
Members of the sheriff’s office went shopping for the gifts and volunteers wrapped them so they’d be ready for Santa to deliver.
Special Delivery From Santa
Santa left his sled and elves behind for the day to help the sheriff’s department deliver gifts to 25 kids.
Sheriff Mendrick said that around half of them asked for clothing instead of toys.
“When you see children instead of asking for toys for Christmas asking for necessities, their basic needs, it’s heartbreaking,” said Sheriff Mendrick. “This is why this is so important is that there’s a lot of despair out there right now and if we can take a little bit of that away, this is all worth it.”
Nonprofit organization, SCARCE, donated one toy for each child to receive with the gifts they asked for.
Naperville News 17’s Aysha Ashley Househ and Ryan Skryd report.
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