Put on a FORC Jersey and help make someone's holiday season a little better. If you can make it, let me know since they would like to have names. Wrapping will take place in the Moline Wal-Mart Garden Center.

I know Thanksgiving hasn’t arrived yet, BUT it is already time to sign up to help with the annual Shop-With-A-Cop activity.

This year the shopping will happen on Thursday, December 4th at Wal-Mart in Moline.

We (Office Buzz Robinson and I) would like volunteers to arrive by 3:30 p.m. so they can hear Buzz’s instructions and guidelines.

The kids - as many as 40 of them this year from the Rock Island-Milan School District - will arrive about 4:00 p.m. Then the shopping begins! As soon as the students finish shopping, the wrapping starts. Gifts are wrapped while the students go to Ryan’s Steakhouse for dinner. When the students return, they gather up their wrapped gifts and get on the vans to go back to the school.

Our greatest need this year is for people to wrap the gifts that the students purchase. Last year we were very shorthanded in this area and it made for a rather hectic evening. When there are enough wrappers, the work is easily completed by about 7:00 p.m.

If you have ever participated in this activity, you know how rewarding it can be, for the students participating in it and for the volunteers working with the students. You will be amazed as you see the careful consideration these students put into buying just the right gift for each member of their families. And you will smile at some of the gifts, wondering why a hammer or a pair of work boots is the perfect gift for Dad.

MetroLINK is providing transportation for the students to and from Wal-Mart free of charge.

Please come out and help the Rock Island Police Department make Christmas better for 40 families this year. Your help is necessary to make this event a success.

Thanks

Mark