December 21, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
Children at the Smithville Head Start Center were treated to bags of gifts Friday thanks to the Smithville Police Department’s “Cops4Kids” program.
In what has become an annual event, Police Chief Mark Collins, Mayor Josh Miller and other members of the police department joined Santa in presenting the children with the gifts. Other guests included the Doug Collins Family who sang for the children and Randy Pedigo, a local minister who shared the Christmas story.
“This is the fifth year I have been doing it. It’s a really good day for us. I don’t know who gets the most out of it us (Police Officers) or the kids but we come and spend a couple of hours with the children here at Smithville Head Start and we bring them gifts. Santa Claus makes a special appearance. We have singing. Its just a good thing for them. All the guys at the police department really enjoy it,” said Police Chief Collins.
The bags of gifts for the kids were provided as a courtesy of Cash Express of Smithville who recently held a collection drive. Others make personal donations toward the effort.
Doug Collins from dwayne page on Vimeo.
“Cash Express in Smithville and the girls there are phenomenal . They put out collection boxes in the community and the public donated toys. Cash Express in turn gave the toys to us. Each year if we don’t have enough gifts we go and buy what we need for these kids but most of the gifts come from Cash Express from the donations made to them by the citizens of DeKalb County and I want to say thank you to all. You really have to be here to experience how touching this is because this may be the only Christmas some of these children get because their parents can’t afford to buy Christmas gifts,” added Chief Collins.