Children in need celebrate Christmas with Grundy County Heroes & Helpers

MORRIS – Nonprofit Grundy County Heroes & Helpers Inc. and local police officers, firefighters, sheriff’s deputies and emergency medical technicians celebrated Christmas with 76 children and their families during the second annual Shop with a Hero event Dec. 12. The children were selected through an application process where families had the opportunity to share about a hardship from 2020 that was making celebrating Christmas to the fullest particularly difficult this holiday season.

“With COVID-19 impacting us this year, we had to get creative,” GCHH President Wendy Briley said. “We knew we couldn’t have our event like last year where we match a hero – police, fire, sheriff, EMS – with a child and send them on a shopping spree together.

“We needed to be able to provide social distancing and space our families out, which I am happy to say, with the help of First Christian Church and Pastor Scott Zorn, we were able to successfully provide a safe, socially distanced event for everyone.”

Local heroes and volunteers for the organization shopped Dec. 1 at the Walmart in Morris. Each hero was given a list of necessities for the children, such as coats, clothes and shoes. The heroes and helpers then wrapped the items and set them aside for the big celebration day. Families were given a time slot between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Dec. 12 to arrive at First Christian Church, 455 W. Southmor Road. Upon arrival, children were assigned a local hero and helper and were invited to greet Santa, played by area resident Dave DiVincenzo, for a socially distanced picture.

Santa sat in Santa’s house with a plexiglass window separating him from guests. The children were able to sit in front of him on a specially built prop. The heroes then walked the children to tables of toys laid out by age; the children were able to pick out several toys. Once they picked toys, the children continued through the one-way circle to a gift opening station, where the children opened a couple of the clothing items previously purchased by the heroes. In between groups of children, the stations were sanitized, ensuring everything was clean and ready for the next family. The heroes and helpers helped the families to their cars to load up all of their presents and Christmas cheer.

“The most important part of our celebration is giving children an opportunity to meet our county’s heroes,” Briley said. “We are so grateful and honored for all the heroes and departments throughout the entire county who came through and gave their undivided attention to the children we served this year.”

“It brings me a lot of joy to see the kids come through the doors and get to see all the heroes together interacting with the kids,” said Sgt. Chris Harseim of the Coal City Police Department. “It is nice to see the community come together to give back to the kids.” This is Harseim’s second year participating in the Heroes & Helpers event, along with his wife, Britt Harseim, who also helped with shopping, wrapping gifts and celebrating at the event.

Thanks to an anonymous donation, GCHH was able to raffle off 22 bikes. Grundy County Sheriff Ken Briley surprised recipients and then took a photo with the child and their new bike. Morris resident Kyle Connor’s son was one of the recipients.

“This was a really great experience; my son randomly won a bike raffle,” said Connor, father of 10-year-old Adrianna and 4-year-old Axel. “Being able to interact and hang out with the police and firemen helps set my kids up for the future. There’s a lot of misrepresented things about police officers. Having this first-hand experience with them is almost more valuable than any of the gifts because they will remember this experience for years to come.”

This year’s event was sponsored by Sportsman For Charity, which gave $10,000 – a blessing amid a crisis that forced GCHH to cancel most of its fundraising events this year. Heroes spent $150 on clothes and shoes for each child at Walmart.

The community rallied to make the event possible. Here are just a few examples of individuals’ generosity that supported this year’s event:

• Madison Condon, 9, raised $1,100 in cash and collected new, unwrapped toys to go toward the event.

• Paisano’s Mexican Grill & Market of Morris generously donated food to feed the heroes and volunteers during a 40-minute break.

• Holeigh Strange of Morris generously donated her time, materials and talent to build the socially distanced Santa House.

• First Christian Church’s Zorn volunteered the church’s space for the event and several times leading up to prepare for the event.

• Morris Hospital Cath Lab staff and Morris Cath Lab doctors donated new and unwrapped toys and volunteered for shopping and helping at the event.

• Serve Pro, a fire and water cleanup and restoration company, generously donated wrapping paper for the event.

Heroes from the following departments participated: Grundy County Sheriff Office; Coal City, Minooka and Morris police departments; and Coal City, Dwight, Gardner, Morris and Verona fire departments.