RI police give food baskets to the needy
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By Thomas Geyer | Sunday, December 23, 2007 |
Rock Island police will be out in force Monday throughout the Quad-Cities, but they won’t only be serving arrest warrants.
Rock Island police officers, with the backing of the Salvation Army in Moline, will be delivering more than 500 food baskets to the needy in the Quad-Cities, Rock Island Police Lt. Mark Poulos said.
“We want to make sure that the people needing a nice Christmas dinner have the ingredients to make that happen,” he said.
The drive is sponsored by the Rock Island Police Benevolent Association Unit 3.
“The baskets this year will have a turkey and dressing or fixings for dressing and canned goods and bread, Poulos said. “Everything you would need for a Christmas dinner, short the apple pie. It’s about a 25 pound box.”
After a quick briefing at Rock Island City Hall on Monday morning, the band of officers will head to the Salvation Army in Moline to pick up their baskets. And then they will scatter in all directions.
“Some of our officers will have routes with more than 60 baskets,” Poulos said. “We’re also getting help from the Marine Reserve Unit at the Arsenal. They come over and help at the distribution center.”
Rock Island Police Sgt. Jim Chadwick said the program began years ago, but no one is sure when. Poulos said he has been on the department for 30 years and cannot remember a year when it wasn’t held.
Chadwick said he has been working with the program for about 15 years.
“It was much smaller then,” Chadwick said. “This year we’ve got about 530 requests for baskets. It was about half that when I got involved in it.”
The program used to serve just Rock Island, he said, but has grown this year to include Rock Island, Moline, East Moline, Silvis, Carbon Cliff and Colona in Illinois, and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa.
“We’ve even got a request in Princeton, Iowa, this year,” he said. “We’ll get them something.”
Chadwick said that every year more requests come in.
“Either the need is bigger or there are just more people learning about the program,” he said. It is probably both.
He added that included with the baskets are toys for needy children.
Poulos said that the smiles on peoples’ faces when they get a basket make the effort worth the work.
“When you see the look on somebody’s face who needs a food basket it really makes you feel good,” he said. “Maybe they’re going through some hard times. But it’s heartwarming to know that you had a part in making their day special.”
Thomas Geyer can be contacted at (563) 383-2328 or tgeyer@qctimes.com.
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