Fairfield Elks hosts Shop with a Hero

FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield Elks Lodge held its annual Shop with a Hero on Saturday, Dec. 6, inviting 66 children to shop for Christmas presents with local first responders.

This was the 10th year the organization has put on the event, where children get to ride in emergency vehicles in a parade from Fairfield’s Central Park to Walmart, where they do their shopping. Kim Winslow, a past officer of the Elks, said the 66 kids participating this year was unusually high, since the club tries to keep the number to 50.

School guidance counselors in the area give the club a list of students ranging in age from kindergarten through high school. Selected children then get $50 to shop at Walmart, and their families get $150 to shop at HyVee. Accompanying the children are Elks members and representatives of the Fairfield and Libertyville fire departments, Fairfield Police Department, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Jefferson County Emergency Management, and Jefferson County Ambulance.

Winslow was the driving force behind starting Shop with a Hero a decade ago, since she saw the need for it working as a secretary at Pence Elementary School. Before the Elks took on this project, law enforcement officers would take kids shopping, but usually only two to four, as many as could fit in a squad car.

“I said at the time, ‘There has to be a way to spread this out more throughout the community,’” Winslow said.

Funding for Shop with a Hero comes from about $2,500 in local donations, plus a $3,000 grant from the Elks National Foundation.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com