MOUNT PLEASANT — Nothing encapsulates the spirit of the season quite like the many residents working to ensure the needs of their neighbors are met during Christmas.
Groups come together to provide area residents with a Christmas meal and a toy from Santa
Volunteers from several organizations gathered on Wednesday for Christmas at the Lakeside Community Oriented Policing House on Mead Street to deliver meals and a toy from Santa.
Volunteer organizations included the Mount Pleasant Citizen Police Academy Alumni, Journey Disaster Response Team, the Mount Pleasant Police Department and the South Shore Fire Department, to name a few.
Officer Rachel Gardinier, who is stationed at the Mount Pleasant COP House, said the department was hosting a Christmas dinner for about 25 people in the neighborhood, which included a ham or turkey.
Drive-thru pantry
COP officers previously reached out to neighbors to determine who would appreciate having something extra for their Christmas dinner, which they then picked up Wednesday evening.
Outside, the Journey Disaster Response Team hosted a pop-up, drive-thru pantry with cars lined up around the block.
As each car pulled up, volunteers scrambled to load the food while other volunteers passed out Christmas toys.
The event assisted 160 families, which represented approximately 500 people.
Jeff Berard, director of the organization, said every person received a box of food and frozen meat, which was provided by Feeding America.
“We’ve being doing this for about a year, helping out, working with the COP House here,” Berard said.
The Journey Disaster Response Team describes itself as “an all-volunteer faith-based serving ministry.”
The organization “recruits, trains, and deploys a team of volunteers to use their skills and talents, in partnership with a network of community organizations, to provide available resources, offer hope and enable the restoration process of lives impacted by disaster or other emergencies.”
Journey DRT is sending a team to Kentucky to help with the tornado damage. The Operation Heartland team will stay through the end of February assisting a partner organization.
Berard said it may not be the same people for the entire duration of the trip. One person may have a week to give and someone else a month.
The important thing for the organization is to be a presence and assist with the recovery.
For more information on Operation Heartland visit: https://journeydrt.com/
Racine’s Community Oriented Policing program has been nationally recognized for its efforts to place police officers directly in neighborhoods to strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve.
There are six COP Houses in Racine, which gives officers a base for getting to know the people in the neighborhood in order to build trust.
