Shop with a Cop Event Held Yesterday in Knox

Left to right: Starke County Conservation Officer Keith Wildeman, Jeremiah Patrick, Monica Collins, Harold Smith, James Upsall, Rob Olejniczack, Rich Gast, Caitlyn Hinshaw, Melissa Osburn, Sandy Binkley, Hugo Reese, Chris Kisela, and Bob Leffert.

Officers from the Kankakee Valley Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #129 participated in a Shop with a Cop event yesterday at ALCO in Knox. Chris Kisela, Knox City Police Officer and FOP President, talked about yesterday’s event:

“We’ve been doing fundraisers over the summer. We’ve raised over $2000 so far. We’ll take that $2000 and spend it on school clothes. The kids will have $100 each to buy school clothes for the upcoming school year,” said Kisela.

Thirty-two families benefited from yesterday’s event. The kids were paired with an officer dispatcher, or jail deputy from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department and they shopped for clothes, shoes and backpacks. One officer from the Indiana State Police and an Indiana Conservation officer who patrol in Starke County also participated.

One parent was quoted as saying, “You guys have been a Godsend, you have no idea how much this means to my family.”