See and print more than 200 photos with Santa Saturday's
Cops N Kids Book Giveway at Merchant's Moving and Storage
Cops N Kids Book Giveway at Merchant's Moving and Storage
It was all about reading Saturday morning, as thousands of kids poured into the warehouse at Merchants Moving where some 50,000 books were waiting for them.
Long rows of pallets, each with piles of books for a different age range, were the big draw, as each child was allowed to fill a large bag with all he or she could carry. Nor were books the morning's only attraction: Santa Claus was present, after all, along with Sparky the firedog, carols, a string ensemble and even Toby, a reader-dog. More than 100 volunteers worked quietly behind the scenes, replenishing to piles of books and making everything go smoothly.
Children sat contentedly on the pallets, holding up this book and that, reading a few pages, putting it back to find something else. Moms and Dads helped, some sitting quietly to read with their children. Julia Burney Witherspoon, whose Cops 'N Kids reading program started it all, proudly wore reindeer antlers and shepherded shy kids from place to place, garnering some a book here, a junior police badge there. Her smile was ear to ear. "Isn't this wonderful." she said; it wasn't a question.
And when it was done, you can be sure there were many Racine kids sitting quietly in a corner at home, engrossed in their latest acquisition: a stack of new books. How neat is that?
Vanessa Guaerrero, 5, reads to Investigator Tracy Hintz
Brock Batwinski, 1, surrounded by books
Elizabeth Marcellis, 5, with SantaPostscript: There were a lot of law enforcement personnel at the book giveaway, signing autographs, giving away junior policemen badges and pencils, generally making small talk -- all part of their effort to win hearts and minds while the kids are receptive. Racine Police Chief Kurt Wahlen was also present, and I joshed him gently, saying, "Shouldn't you be out on the street catching criminals?" Ha, joke's on me: While he was driving to Saturday's event in his unmarked squad, a car sped past him at 50-60 mph. Wahlen turned on his portable flashing lights, stopped the vehicle and arrested its driver: a woman driving with a suspended license for the third time who had two warrants pending.
Do you know where we can find the pictures taken with Santa?
ReplyDeleteI sure hope you meant "passed" him and not in the "past"; otherwise, I'm applying for a job as a copy editor.
ReplyDeleteAnon 8:09 Sorry, but no copy editor job for you.
ReplyDeletePast can be an adjective, noun, adverb or preposition. You could look it up (and should do so before your next job application via the comments.)
Anon 7:43 We'll have the photos up on RacinePost.com soon.
ReplyDeleteWest Racine would be a good place for something like this, like when we had the Santa House on the corner, but a certain alderman doesn't want those types of kids
ReplyDelete(inner city kids) tromping through his neighborhood. Too bad, West Racine good use a little love going around. Hopefully love is contagious and West Racine soon becomes infected.
Amen!
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed that Santa was white at this year's book giveaway.
ReplyDeleteThe JT beat the Post to the article and photos of this event. The Post was asleep at the wheel and too occupied with deleting comments instead of reporting this story in a timely fashion. soooooo sad.
ReplyDeleteAnon 9:51. First of all, not true. Check the posting times...
ReplyDeleteSecondly, who cares? They break some stories; we break others; that's the nature of the beast. Does it really matter that we posted the story of Jeff Barrow's election hours before either the JT or the J-S? (Only to us!)
As for comments: Keep 'em clean and on topic and gee whiz, they don't get deleted. Duh.
Julia for Mayor. She loves kids of all races. This is a woman that is unselfish, compassionate and unbiased, she is the type of person that should be running a city as diverse as Racine.
ReplyDeleteThat was hilarious! The JT SHOULD beat the Post to every story - with a budget that is what, three or four orders of magnitude larger? Funnier yet, the JT doesn't.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great Santa pictures! I see many of my students and look forward to hearing about the books they picked out.
ReplyDeleteDo we know how many attended? The JT headline says hundreds -- I hope it was more than that.
I'm just amazed Kurt Wahlen was seen in public and actually did something to help fight crime in this city.
ReplyDeleteGreat story about the books by the way...
This give away is one of the best give away events in the city. There is so much cooperation from so many sources. I haven't seen that with other give aways.
ReplyDeleteThanks to all those who help in any way.
Anon 3:39 - I agree, but what is also funny is that JT employs how many dozens of people while Racine Post gets by on the work of 2 people who are not doing this for the money!
ReplyDelete