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APD puts on 51st annual Operation Blue Santa
Once again, the Austin Police Department is ringing in the holiday season by putting on their Santa hats and going beyond the badge to give back to the community in their 51st annual Operation Blue Santa.
AUSTIN, Texas - The Austin Police Department is ringing in the holiday season by putting on their Christmas hats and going beyond the badge to give back to the community in their annual Operation Blue Santa Program.
The gift-giving event has been going on for 51 years, and this year, the police department was able to provide gifts for more than 5,000 families with the help of the community.
"This is our 51st year delivering presents, gifts, to under-privileged families and children in our Austin area," APD Interim Chief Robin Henderson said.
A warehouse full of gifts and dozens of volunteers: a recipe for giving back.
"We have just over 1,500 to deliver from this warehouse, just this warehouse, and that is about the same count at all of our other three locations," Interim Chief Henderson said. "We definitely need the communities help today."
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Austin kids Shop with a Cop for Christmas
Christmas is close, and to celebrate early, some Austin police officers spent the morning shopping with around 100 kids at Target. This was part of the annual Shop with a Cop event.
According to APD, close to 5,300 families received gifts this holiday season, and this year the department introduced a new program that allowed families to come and pick up gifts,
"Community members could do self pick-up, so we spent three days, I believe last week, four hours for families who wouldn’t possibly be available for us to deliver gifts today," Interim Chief Henderson said.
Among those helping deliver gifts was the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, bringing in about 40 volunteers.
"We are just happy to be here, we are happy to be giving back to the community," said Joseph "Big Joe" Hernandez, a volunteer with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. "We are also the Electrical Workers Minority Caucus within our organization, so we are just doing everything we can to give back to our community."
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A full circle moment for many participating in Operation Blue Santa.
"A lot of our members, when they were younger, before they became electricians, actually used to receive gifts from Blue Santa," Hernandez said.
The program provides families with an HEB food gift card and toys donated by the community for each child up to 14 years old.
"It's heartwarming, it's a wonderful position to have to be able to bring so much joy to so many families, not only that our officers very much enjoy it too," Interim Chief Henderson said. "It's heartwarming to see all the smiles on the family and the kids’ faces, it is just a wonderful time."