Published December 23. 2025 09:23AM<\/p>\n
For 19 years the Colonial Regional Police Department has conducted its \u2018Shop with a Cop\u2019 program which partners police officers with deserving children on a holiday shopping spree. Seven kids had breakfast at Chick-Fil-A, shopped at Walmart and enjoyed a visit with Santa Claus during lunch at Red Robin Dec. 6.<\/p>\n
The youngsters travel first class from stop to stop in a police vehicle with emergency sirens blaring and lights flashing as they arrive from Chick-Fil-A at Walmart. They are partnered with a Colonial Regional Police officer and a helper, who is usually the officer\u2019s wife or other family member.<\/p>\n
At Walmart, team members at the store wait en masse out front to cheer their arrival and welcome them.<\/p>\n
During their shopping experiences, each child works off a list prepared in advance with gift ideas for family members. They can shop for themselves as well, and they are required to select two gifts for donation to the U.S. Marine Reserves\u2019 Toys for Tots program.<\/p>\n
Funding is provided through private and business donations and each child receives an equal share.<\/p>\n
After checkout they present their Toys for Tots donations to a group of Marines who are members of the Marine Corps League and then line up with shopping carts full of their selections so Walmart employees can wrap their gifts and place gift tags on them.<\/p>\n
The procession continues to the final stop at Red Robin, where the officers, helpers and children have lunch. A visit from \u2018Red\u2019 Robin, the Red Robin mascot, initiates a session of rock, paper, scissors with the big bird.<\/p>\n
The highlight comes right after lunch when Santa Claus arrives on a special visit. The children\u2019s heartwarming glee is rewarded as they sit on the floor in front of Jolly Saint Nick and he hands them each a small bag of gifts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an annual event that our officers love doing just as much as the children do,\u201d says Chief of Police James DePalma.<\/p>\n
Colonial Regional Police records manager Wanda Stackhouse says they work closely with elementary schools in the department\u2019s coverage area to determine which children will participate.<\/p>\n
Arlo heads off to shop with Detective Matt Antonucci, whose wife and helper Ashley checks the shopping list.<\/p>\n
Detective Matt Anotoucci and his wife Ashley help Arlo shop for fuzzy socks.<\/p>\n
Noel is making shopping progress with patrolman Sterling Kemmerer, whose wife Maegan is the helper.<\/p>\n
Lt. Wendling and his daughter Eliza help Nouri select a shirt for her dad. \u201cIt\u2019s fun,\u201d says Nouri.<\/p>\n
Colonial Regional Chief of Police James DePalma helps process one of the orders as Walmart cashier Victoria records the order.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTOS BY DANA GRUBBNoel gives one of two toys he purchased for Toys for Tots to members of the Marine Corps League.<\/p>\n
Manager Onica James, a 23-year Walmart employee, wraps one of the many gifts purchased by the children.<\/p>\n
Members of the Marine Corps League pose next to the Toys for Tots banner at Walmart.<\/p>\n
A line-up of Walmart em-ployees wraps the children\u2019s gifts.<\/p>\n
The \u2018Shop with a Cop\u2019 2025 T-shirt. Our photo coverage continues on page A3.<\/p>\n
Bentley and Arlo chose a burger and chicken fingers for lunch at Red Robin.<\/p>\n
Several of the children circle around Santa Claus right after he arrived during lunch.<\/p>\n
Jaxon checks out his gift bag from Santa.<\/p>\n
Lilly makes sure to let Santa know what she\u2019d like him to deliver on Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published December 23. 2025 09:23AM For 19 years the Colonial Regional Police Department has conducted its \u2018Shop with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-68558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}