By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Chapel House in Grayson was the site of a donation to a popular effort to mitigate the challenges many people face during the holidays. Chapel House and Friendship House senior living centers were the groups which donated at the event, and Carter County Sheriff Jeff May was on hand to accept the donations. He offered his gratitude to the groups involved, and assured them that the donations were much needed during the Christmas season.
Each of the buildings at Chapel House has a club that takes on different projects throughout the year. They also operate a thrift store, with all the proceeds from the store going into the clubs for them to use in funding various projects. Then, at the end of the year, the clubs choose a charity to donate the money they have raised.
The thrift store does take donations, and is open to the public on Mondays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and on Saturdays from 9 to 2 as well. The public can feel free to come in and shop or donate during those hours, and the money will be distributed to each club. There is a Facebook page linked to the Christian Care communities where people can learn more about Chapel House.
“I know you have made a lot of kids happy,” May told the groups who donated. “We had about 58 kids that we helped last year, and we are hoping to help close to 80 this year. We are blessed to be able to be with these kids.”
Sheriff May said that you might expect kids today to be looking for an iPhone or other popular gadgets for Christmas, but that isn’t the case.
“These kids today are still looking for the basics like underwear,” he said. “They want things like socks, or dresses to wear to church. We see this all the time,” he said of kids who need the basic necessities of life. “And it just tears your heart up. They are spending what money they have for themselves on clothes for Christmas.”
May said that when they take the kids shopping during the Shop With a Cop events, they let the kids pick out whatever they want for Christmas.
“This (the funds) is theirs – we are just there to move it around and make it happen. Usually there are between 20 and 30 of us law enforcement officers that will take them around shopping. And sometimes there is a family of four, and that’s real fun,” May said of the often-strained logistics.
Regardless of the intensity of the ‘shopping experience’ May insists that he and the other officers involved are blessed to be able to participate in spreading joy during the holiday season. And it is a way to show, he said, that law enforcement officers take the motto of ‘to Protect and Serve’ seriously. Hopefully, he said, it will help show young people who might have a bad home life that there is a better way.
“We might have been in some of these kid’s homes in a domestic violence situation or other situations,” May said. “And they might not like the police.”
He has seen that a lot in his 23 years of being involved in the program.
“They might think you are the bad guy, even though you’re not. But when we do something like this with them, then they start to open up and see things a little differently.”
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
