CRESTVIEW — A local auto dealership and the Crestview Police Department are ensuring needy children will have a merry Christmas.
Through a voluntary payroll withholding plan, 48 Allen Turner Chevrolet employees collectively donated $6,500, including company matching contributions, to the CPD's Cops For Kids program.
“Our employees are very community minded,” Turner said during the check presentation Thursday at the dealership. “They’ve been so blessed being able to do this for an established program. The Cops For Kids program has been such a success.”
“It’s been a very important program for us,” Police Chief Tony Taylor said. “Mr. Turner wanted to get involved with something like this and it’s a great partnership.
"There’s no telling how many lives they’re going to touch with the check they presented.”
While this is the first year the auto dealer's employees have supported Cops For Kids, Turner said he expects contributions will grow in years to come. “As employees see it working out, we think they’ll give even more next year,” he said.
Community Policing Officer Sam Kimmons, who voluntarily manages Cops For Kids with fellow Officer Wanda Hulion, said the program began 15 years ago as then patrolman Billy Napier's idea. “He created this to help some of the kids in public housing who might not have a Christmas otherwise,” Kimmons said.
Napier began his law enforcement career patrolling the city’s public housing complexes. When he started Cops For Kids, “it was just for one or two families,” Kimmons said. “If they were really struggling, he’d help them out.”
Later, now-retired Lt. Eddie Lehneis and Sgt. Dave Bracewell started helping. “Each year it got bigger,” Kimmons said.
“I’ve heard nothing but good about Billy,” said Hulion, who joined the force as a dispatcher just weeks before Napier died. “It really lights up the kids’ faces when we show up with the toys.”
For Turner's Crestview team, those smiles make the year of donating worthwhile. “It feels good for our employees to be able to participate in something good that happens right here in Crestview,” Turner said.
“It touches local lives right here in town.”
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Allen Turner describes his employees enthusiasm for supporting the Crestview Police Department’s Cops For Kids program to Police Chief Tony Taylor.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes at brianh@crestviewbulletin.com, follow him on Twitter @cnbBrian or call 850-682-6524.
BRIAN HUGHES / News Bulletin
Cops For Kids donors may drop off new, unused toys and children’s clothes at Dollar General stores, city hall and the Crestview Police Department. Monetary donations are also received, Community Policing Officer Wanda Hulion said.
Families wishing to receive toys and clothes can drop off an application at the police department by Dec. 16.
“We do vet the applications,” Community Policing Officer Sam Kimmons said. Applicants on other gift donations lists, such as Toys For Tots or church giveaways, are ineligible “so those toys can go to another family,” Kimmons said.
For more information, call Kimmons, 305-7831, or Hulion, 305-2905, or stop by the Crestview Police Department in the Whitehurst Municipal Building on Stillwell Avenue at Industrial Drive.
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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Auto dealer joins Crestview Police Department effort to help needy children (VIDEO)