CHILDREN OF AREA `SHOP WITH COP' AT WALM-MART

Cape Girardeau police officer Dennis Horn followed a little boy and a little girl down an aisle laden with toys at the Wal-Mart Supercenter Tuesday morning.

Both children were looking rather indecisively at the toys, not quite sure what to pick from the shelves.

"I think we're lost," said Horn, as he tried to point the little girl in the direction of the dolls. Meanwhile, the boy was walking away in the opposite direction.

Although they did look a bit out of place, the two dozen-plus lawmen were definitely not lost. They were the featured guests at Wal-Mart's second annual "Shop With A Cop" day for foster children and children of low-income families.

Over the past year, Wal-Mart employees and members of the Cape Girardeau Regional Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 33 raised more than $1,500 through fund-raisers and donations. The Wal-Mart corporation matched about $1,400, which allowed local organizers to expand the event.

Last year Wal-Mart gave 50 area children $30 each to spend in the store. This year 92 children waited their turns to have their pictures taken with Santa Claus and a police officer before being set loose in the store to spend $33 each.

"We hope to be able to have at least 100 children come next year," said Tracy Lee, one of the organizers of the event for Wal-Mart. "I was so nervous about this for the past few days -- hoping everything would be alright -- but everything seems to have worked out perfectly."

With the increased size of the group and the limited number of police officers, children were broken into three groups. Those who were not shopping with a cop were having their picture taken with Santa Claus and police officers or eating complimentary doughnuts and sugar cookies.

Officers from the Cape Girardeau Police Department, the Southeast Missouri State University Department of Public Safety, Jackson, Marble Hill and Bollinger counties were on hand to serve as makeshift adding machines and shopping-cart pushers for the children. Even Clarence Coomer, a U.S. Deputy Marshal, got into the act.

A majority of the children who were given the gift certificates were from the Cape Girardeau area, said Terri Mungle, a social services worker with the Division of Family Services.

"Some of them are foster kids, but a majority are from families we are familiar with," said Mungle. "We called on a lot of these people, asking them if they wanted to come. Some people who had heard about this called us, and we added their names to the list."

As the children hit the toy section of the store, the police officers followed obediently. Clerks from Wal-Mart followed with hand-held computerized price-checkers to answer the frequently asked question, "How much is this?"

Shopping carts were stuffed full of Barney merchandise, toy dolls, action figures, legos, coloring books, games and every other toy imaginable.

Many of the little boys opted for remote-controlled police cars or toy guns, as if to impress their shopping hosts.

Six-year-old Eric was having the time of his life Tuesday.

"This is fun," he said as he led a police officer down the aisle toward the remote-controlled robots. "The police officers are really nice."

Sisters Amanda and Elizabeth, ages 3 and 6, respectively, pooled their money to purchase a $64 Fisher-Price mini-kitchen set. Their older sister Rebecah, 8, was more in the market for dolls and dress-up jewelry.

"It's kind of scary walking around with the police officers, but it's neat, too," Rebecah said.

As it turned out, the police officers had as much fun as the children.

After a majority of the children had gone home, the officers mingled a while waiting for stragglers and slow shoppers to finish.

Two young boys approached officer Ken Rinehart and Capt. Stephen Strong, asking them to tie slip knots in the end of their yo-yo strings. Rinehart finished the task quickly and commenced a small performance of yo-yo tricks. Strong abdicated his responsibility to Rinehart.

Many of the officers dipped into their own pockets to make up the difference when their young shoppers went over their spending limits. None of them seemed to mind.

"I wanted to take part in this program because I believe in it and it's good contact with the kids," said Cape Girardeau police officer Brian Ritter. "I really enjoy having the opportunity to do things like this."

As the last shoppers were leaving, a young boy tapped Coomer on the back. When the deputy marshal turned around, the young boy gave him a brief hug and thanked Coomer for shopping with him.

"Your welcome," said Coomer. As the boy was returning to his mother, Coomer called, "Merry Christmas."