Orion Kids to Shop With a Hero This Week

On Thursday, Dec. 13, Lake Orion children who might otherwise go without a Christmas will go shopping with policemen, firemen and other public servants at the Meijer store in Oxford.

Each child will be paired with an adult and have $150 to spend. It’s Lake Orion’s own Shop With a Hero event, and there’s still time to donate.

“Every time we get another $150, another kid goes shopping,” said Lake Orion Police Chief Jerry Narsh. Last year 100 children participated.

This year the LOPD, the Orion Township Fire Department, Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies, FBI agents and even soldiers of the 1775th Military Police Company of Pontiac who are just back from Afghanistan will take the kids shopping.

“We’ve actually started to run out of heroes, we had so many kids,” Narsh said. “It’s a difficult year, as everybody knows. … We are faced with tremendous challenges to meet our goals that no child in the Orion area is without the miracle and magic of Christmas morning.”

The Oxford Meijer store will provide pizza for the kids on shopping night. The store will also provide a complete Christmas dinner to each family represented.

Donations may be made to the fire department, the Lake Orion Police or the sheriff’s Orion Township substation. “It’s collaboration between everybody,” Fire Chief Robert Smith said.

Local businessman Larry Mullins hopes his donation to the program this year will inspire others to give. At the Dec. 3 Orion Township Board of Trustees meeting, he said the program “is such a great opportunity to see interaction between our police and fire department and the kids that maybe haven’t seen the kinder and giving side.”

“It’s the funnest thing we do all year,” Narsh said. “It’s that Christmas morning for each of those children and a little less pressure on families that are having a hard time.”

Narsh said he believes this year is as tough or tougher than last year for many families as the economy continues to struggle.

“For a family with small children, Christmas morning will either be filled with stress, or joy,” he said. “The ability as a community to come together and relieve some of that pressure for those hardest hit while also providing an opportunity for children to spend time with real American heroes is what makes this program so unique.”