Christmas spirit soars in Silver Valley during children's shopping spree

SMELTERVILLE — They drove up in police cars and fire trucks with lights flashing.

With festive hats and smiles, no teeth were they gnashing. First responders and kids gathered carts stacked with presents on the way, that they would present to the children’s families on Christmas Day.

Shop with a Cop has become an annual tradition in the Silver Valley and is organized by Osburn Police to pair kids with first responders as they go on a fully-funded shopping spree to get presents for their families as well as some items for themselves.

Lt. Jason Woody of Osburn Police said the kids are grouped with first responders in Osburn before they take off in patrol cars with emergency lights and sirens to take the kids on a special shopping mission at the Walmart in Smelterville.

Though the Grinch made a later appearance after they returned to the Osburn fire station, it was all Christmas cheer Saturday and Sunday as two groups of 50 kids each were paired with law enforcement officers and firefighters to select presents for their families and get a little something for themselves as well. 

“Last year, we only had 80 applications. This year we had 140-plus applications. We could only take 100 kids, as we just didn’t have enough officers to take them all. Each officer had three to four kids with them while shopping,” Woody said.

A few parents stayed near the registers at the Walmart in Smelterville to help tailor presents to family members’ clothing and shoe size, if the need be.

When they return to the fire station, volunteers help the kids wrap up presents for their family members.

With the kids in charge of the shopping (other than keeping to a budget) some kids proceeded to set aside their favorite toys from the shelves, others were plagued by indecision, as one state trooper relayed a story of a kid filling up a cart all the way to the spending limit one moment, then putting everything back, and then shooting back up beyond the max limit once again. 

Adric Vincent stood out of the bunch for having actually done a dry run to narrow his selections down ahead of time.  

“My mom took me to Walmart yesterday so that I could plan,” Vincent said.

He was excited to test out his wireless video game controller for himself later, but was very proud of his neatly stacked presents for his family. 

The totals spent were about $5,600 spent Saturday and just a little over $5,100 Sunday.

One second grader wound up showing how big a heart he has as the adults at the fire station helped him wrap presents. When they asked him who each gift was for, he’d point to another kid and say it was for him. When they asked him if he knew the other boy, he said that he didn’t, but he just wanted them to have it. 

“It was amazing to see him do this as he was thinking of others whom he doesn’t even know over himself,” Woody said.

Addison Corbett tried to find fake nails for her family member in the aisles while Isolde Larsen declared how excited she was to dig into the LEGO Batman set she had picked out for herself while shopping with firefighter Cother La’a.

Not too far away, state trooper Kristen Noah tallied the final numbers for her group and handled price negotiations to add or subtract items from the cart before they called it a day and headed to the register.

“We’re done. We have accomplished shopping,” Noah said to Leathrishe Bowen and Maddox Walker. “We’re done,” Walker repeated with some enthusiasm.

    Maximus, Landon, Paisley, and Deputy Josey Stemrich get ready to go on a kid-led shopping spree during Shop with a Cop in the Silver Valley.
  

    Archer Flatt and Cother La’a of Shoshone Fire District No. 1 go through the final purchases for Shop with a Cop at the Smelterville Walmart.
  

    Zoey Northrup and Viada Northrup pick out items at Walmart while an antler-clad Deputy Nathan Shultz tallies up how much remains in their shopping budget.
  

    Trooper Kristen Noah helps Maddox Walker and Leathrishe Bowen pick out presents for their family members on Dec. 16.
  

    State trooper Kristen Noah crunches the numbers for their shopping budget as she and Leathrishe Bowen and Maddox Walker get ready to head to the register to check out during Shop with a Cop on Dec. 16.