by Laura Read
Meet Alex Velez. Originally from New York, he became a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton. Set up by a mutual friend from Tennessee, he met his wife, Danielle, who is from Knoxville, and fell in love. He is currently in grad school for counseling. Together, they are raising 5 kids and fostering one. They plan to keep fostering children in need. He has been on the force for 4 years and in Knox County prior to joining our force.
After seeing first hand the growing need to help our community’s families, Alex asked to help the small Shop With A Cop community program grow. For the 3 years he has been involved, the program has grown each year. The biggest take away for Alex is the kindness and thoughtfulness in the hearts of the kids. He sees the kids thinking more about their family’s needs than their own wants. Many of the kids are buying items that many of us consider necessities, such as blankets and gifts for other family members. When looking at the receipts for the $6,000, $5,500 was spent on necessities.
The year before he joined the program, it was a small $500 gift card program from TJ Maxx for a few kids. Alex asked to take over the program to help it grow. The first year they were able to provide 25 kids 25 gift cards and breakfast after raising $1000, TJ Maxx generously added $1500 for the kids. Last year they outdid themselves and raised enough for 60 children and dinner, plus the breakfast with a hero, $6000 for shopping and $1200 more for dinner and breakfast.
Being able to provide a happy holiday season to more children and families, Shop With a Cop grew to spotlight more heroes that were needed for the kids. So with our firefighters stepping up alongside our police department, it was reinvented to Shop With A Hero. Since COVID, donations have been more scarce, but more offerings of time and services have unveiled themselves throughout our community. They would like to provide at least 60 kids with the opportunity to spend some quality time with our local heroes. This year will look a bit different. On December 19th, the heroes and their child start at the civic center with a breakfast and in groups of 10, they will make their way to TJ Maxx to shop then, over to Wal-Mart to finish and bring home some groceries for the kids and their families to share a holiday dinner together.
How the program works: Money is raised for the program. For every $100 raised, a kid gets a shopping trip. The breakfast and family dinner are $50 per child of the money raised. So, $150 gives a child in the community breakfast with a hero, a shopping trip with the hero, and a family dinner to share with their families in their home. The program contacts the school board to let them know how many children they are able to accommodate and the school board sends a list of children back.
If you or someone you know, as an individual or business would like to get involved, you can reach out to Alex Velez by email at avelez@oakridgetn.gov.
Originally published in Oak Ridge Neighbors.