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The police department's "Adopt A Family'' program helped keep the holidays happy for at least 16 families and 35 children.
By PATRICK COOPER
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 21, 2001
ST. PETERSBURG -- Two days before Christmas, Gwyn Evans' job offer had fallen through, and her hopes for her children's presents seemed to be gone as well.
But Evans wasn't going to give up. "I just picked up the phone and was calling around, trying to figure out who could help me," she said.
She eventually found the St. Petersburg Police Department's "Adopt a Family" program, and along with 15 other families and 35 children in a local Head Start program, her holiday season was turned around.
In announcing the final tallies of people helped and gifts given, police officials said they were pleased with the results their small program had achieved.
"It just sort of happened,' said Dan Bates, head of the department's Public Information Office and an organizer of the program.
"We just started getting calls from families requesting to be aided" during the holidays, Bates said. While some police units in the past had helped families with Christmas gifts, this year the department took the role of connecting families with units looking to help.
Each unit had its own way of providing for the family or families the unit picked from a pool, Bates said. Units often chose people who lived in particular areas that their officers worked in or knew well.
No matter how they were chosen, the families said they were grateful.
"My kids, they enjoyed everything," said Evans, who has since been hired for a job. "Christmas morning, they were happy -- they woke up happy. And I'm just so thankful (the police) were able to come through for me."
Davene Ross said she had just bought a house for her family, "so Christmas wasn't going to be too nice." But calls to the department put presents under the tree.
"I didn't have the money to do what I wanted, but they stepped right in and made it a great Christmas," Ross said.
The units of the Police Department involved were Community Awareness, Computer Projects, Legal Division and Internal Affairs, the Uniform Services Bureau, Victim Assistance and Youth Services.
After the units were matched with families, there were still eight families who had not been adopted. "We had to get creative pretty quickly," Bates said.
A call and a visit to Toys for Tots, however, fixed the problem.
At the Marine Reserve Center in Tampa, local Toys for Tots chairman Wayne Tucker offered the police as many toys as they needed. According to Tucker, a former Marine, his program supplied toys for more than 99,000 kids during the 2000 holiday season.
By the time police finished loading the toys into their cars, they had presents for all of the 26 children in the leftover families. "It was either that or give them bad news," Bates said. "And we didn't want to do that."
He added: "I don't think it's a new role for the Police Department to be thought of as problem solvers and to be thought of as a caring and giving organization," he said. "This is just an extension of what the community's come to expect of our organization."
"I think it's excellent," said Sherman Smith, a legal adviser for the Police Department who participated in the program. "It gives us a change to share something with folks who are having some problems or are down on their luck."
When he and co-workers arrived at their adopted family's house with presents, the kids "were more excited about the police car" and turning on the siren, said Smith, laughing.
"We're definitely going to be doing it again," he said about his unit. "It kind of gave me some warm fuzzies."