Community Corner

Christmas Miracle: Romeoville Police, Walmart Team Up in Effort to Provide Children Gifts

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Call it a swap of blue for red.

And call it a Christmas wish granted.

Members of the Romeoville Police Department’s Fraternal Order of Police have teamed up with officials at Walmart to organize a special Christmas shopping event on Saturday, Dec. 21, to benefit 47 underprivileged children from Valley View School District.

Find out what's happening in Romeovillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Romeoville officers—acting as real-life Santas—will shop with the students and help them pick out their own Christmas presents during a spree that will run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Romeoville Walmart, 420 S. Weber Road, said John Allen, a patrolman in the K-9 unit and the vice president of the Romeoville Fraternal Order of Police.

Allen said Walmart is donating $2,500 and the FOP is chipping in $3,000 to help purchase gifts for the children, who also will be accompanied by their parents/guardians. And he said community members who would like contribute to the effort can do so by contacting him at the Romeoville Police Department by telephone (815-886-7219) or email (jallen@romeoville.org).

Find out what's happening in Romeovillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Allen said the Fraternal Order of Police is purchasing gifts for children for the first time since he’s been with the Romeoville Police Department in an effort to expand on its other community-minded work. In the past, he said the FOP has purchased turkey dinners for the families of service men and women, assisted in the annual Camp Quality event in Frankfort for children with cancer and worked with the Big Brothers/Big Sisters and St. Baldrick’s organizations.

Headlines: Our Newsletter Overfloweth


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