On the early and crispy cold Saturday morning, more than 30 bundled children waited eagerly for Santa Claus to appear at Montezuma-Cortez High School. To their delight, Santa arrived from the sky. He wasn’t being pulled by a loyal group of reindeer; instead, Santa landed outside the school in a Classic Air helicopter.

Upon landing, he greeted the waiting children with boisterous “ho-ho-ho’s” and posed for pictures before heading back to the North Pole.

The Shop with a Cop event has become a staple Christmas event, a way for children who come from underprivileged families to shop for Christmas.

Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin has been part of for years, noting that many anonymous donors provide funds for this and other initiatives to make sure local children have a very merry Christmas.

He spoke of a brother and sister duo he shopped with last year, recalling that the way their eyes lit up when they picked gifts for their family moved him emotionally.

Shop with a Cop has been put on by DARE police in years past, but this year Karla Ross from the Cortez Police Department, Kelly Hargraves from Piñon Project and the MCHS student government spearheaded the effort to make sure they could continue doing the special event for children.

Ross said she has been part of the event for four years, and each year is just as special. “Even when I worked in Towaoc, I’d come and be part of the event,” she said.

Hargraves said her favorite part is “watching the kids, listening to them pick out gifts for their parents. Like real-life items. They’ll say, ‘I want to get my mom some pots and pans.’”

After Santa’s exciting arrival and breakfast catered for free by Panthers Chefs, local cops from the Police Department, Sheriff’s Office and the State Patrol were grouped with three to five children to take shopping.

Each child was gifted $133 to use for their purchases. An anonymous donor donated $1,000 to be distributed evenly to the children, and Classic Air gifted an extra $25 for each child so they could buy something for themselves while Christmas shopping for their families.

A mom whose 7-year-old daughter participated said Shop with a Cop shows how much the local officers and community as a whole care for the people who live here.

“I think it shows we have a good community, good cops.” she said. “Cops make it fun for our children. Officers aren’t bad people. It’s a good community we live in.”

Amid calls of a group of young girls asking to shop with a “girl cop” and excited children being organized into groups, it was time for the real fun to begin. The children arrived at Walmart in style as they rode with officers in their patrol cars with the lights flashing in a mini-Christmas parade.

As soon as they entered the store, chaotic joy erupted. The sounds of children laughing and chattering filled the toy aisles as the children picked out toys for siblings and discussed with officers how much they had left to buy a gift for their parents.

The student government even took a few children, helping some young girls pick out candles to give to their moms.

Emma Olsen, MCHS student-body president, said, “We got a lot of funds from people this year. We love just being able to help the kids and serve them. It’s really fun.”

Prior to the event, the children’s parents filled out applications for consideration to participate, and the children were chosen based on need. Children in the community who weren’t present at Shop with a Cop will still be given gifts through Piñon Project’s Christmas for Kids program, which serves over 600 children in Montezuma County, along with gifts to be delivered by the Sheriff’s Department.

Nowlin said he and some of his deputies would be using money donated to their office to buy gifts and deliver them to homes on Christmas Eve.

Christmas for Kids Angel Tree

Spread some joy to children this holiday season through the Christmas for Kids Angel Tree sponsored by The Piñon Project and The Journal.

Drop by The Journal’s office at 8 W. Main Street in Cortez to choose an angel with the name of a local child and their wish list.

Drop off the gifts unwrapped and labeled with the child’s name to the Piñon Project, 210 E. Main St. in Cortez by Dec. 23.

For more information about the program and other opportunities to help local families, contact The Piñon Project at (970) 564-1195 or visit their website at pinonproject.org.