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Each year, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office organizes three Christmas programs to help Pinal County’s less fortunate residents during the Holidays. The three programs – Sheriff’s Toy Shop, Adopt-A-Family and Shop with a Sheriff – are made possible by community and business donations and each help Pinal families in different ways.
The “Sheriff’s Toy Shop” collects donations and operates throughout the year, but is busiest during the holidays. Community organizations from around Pinal County host donation drives to collect toys and clothes for underprivileged children and turn them over to PCSO to distribute. The items are then sorted and distributed to these youth prior to Christmas.
“Adopt-A-Family,” is designed to provide children with an entire wardrobe, families with food and veterans with basic necessities. Sixty children received a new wardrobe and approximately one hundred families received Fry’s gift cards for food. This program is made possible by donations from Johnson Utilities and JC Penny.
This year, a group of nurses from Casa Grande Medical Center contacted PCSO
and adopted a family, went shopping for them, and delivered the clothing to the family.
Finally, “Shop with a Sheriff” provided twenty children with $500 gift cards to Wal-Mart in San Tan Valley. Each child was paired with a member of PCSO and had a wish list for each person in their family. While shopping, they bought gifts for their family and themselves. These children are nominated by PCSO staff and represent youth, who are victims of violent crimes, experienced recent loss in their family, or are otherwise in great need. This year, as is the case every year, Ak-Chin along with local small businesses generously donated the majority of the $10,000.00 necessary to offer these children a brighter holiday than what they may have otherwise had.
For information on donating to any of these three programs or to apply to receive help from a program, individuals and organizations are encouraged to contact Sgt. Penny Fendley at (520) 866-5818.
There are news or informational items frequently written by staff or submitted to the Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner, Superior Sun, Pinal Nugget or Oracle Towne Crier for inclusion in our print or digital products. These items are not credited with an author.
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