200 kids participate in Shop with a Cop

Dec. 15—Christmas became a lot brighter for 200 children who rose early Saturday morning for a shopping spree at the London Walmart store.

While officials with the London Police Department and Laurel County Sheriff's Office assisted with the shopping, volunteers from OneMain Financial signed in the children who arrived in groups between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. at designated times. Also assisting were members of the North Laurel High School softball team — in which Laurel Sheriff's Detective Chris Edwards switches his hat from law enforcement to high school sports.

Also participating in the event was London Mayor-Elect Randall Weddle and his daughter, who joined in to assist in the effort.

Shop with a Cop is a program used to help less fortunate families and is funded with donations from private individuals and businesses as well as some fundraising efforts by the Shop with a Cop board — chaired by Jamie Harrison in honor of his uncle, the late Don Wattenbarger, a retired Laurel Sheriff's deputy who founded Shop with a Cop in the area.