From the Northwest Indiana Times:
Police play Santa for a day
By Steve Zabroski
Times Correspondent
Posted: Dec 17, 2011 6:45 PM
HAMMOND | Santa hats were added to duty equipment Saturday as police teams fanned out through neighborhoods delivering packages of holiday cheer to some of the city’s neediest families.
Officers, along with their families and other volunteers, brought more than 2 tons of food to 120 households as part of the Fraternal Order of Police Hammond Lodge 51′s annual Christmas Basket program.
Now in its 10th year, the benefit provided cartons stuffed with canned vegetables, potatoes, bread, pasta and baking ingredients, as well as hams donated by Frank Van Til’s Hessville supermarket — enough for a complete Christmas dinner and an additional week’s worth of groceries.
Residents receiving the unexpected morning visits were selected from suggestions made by patrol officers and city schoolteachers, and those homes with children also got a gift card for toys.
Some $12,000 was raised for the benefit this year from Hammond businesses, schools, elected officials, residents and police officers, said Lt. Mike Jorden, who has coordinated the Christmas Basket program for the past decade.
All on their own time, the officers — supported by more than 50 additional volunteers — packed boxes at the FOP clubhouse with food provided at cost by Van Til’s, and then hit the streets at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Students from the Hammond Area Career Center not only helped with cash from a fundraiser, said Lt. Tom Fulk, who teaches criminal justice classes at the school with Jorden. They also came out to help with packing and deliveries.
The program has grown steadily in popularity and size since its 2002 inception, but what could have been a logistical nightmare this year “went so smoothly it was almost scary,” Jorden said.
