Totes for Tots donations will help children in situations involving police

Erin Cleavenger, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.
·2 min read

Dec. 7—For the past five or six years, members of the West Virginia University Extension Community Educational Outreach Service (CEOS) in Monongalia County have donated handmade tote bags filled with a blanket and a toy or activity to local law enforcement for children in situations involving police.

"If a child is taken out of their home, if they are in an accident, they are given a bag and there is a blanket, there's little toys to keep them busy while they are doing their business — things that would occupy them when sitting in the back of a police car or at the police department, " said Debbie Simpson, president of Mon County CEOS.

"We donate them to the police department (Monongalia County Sheriff's Office), and they share them with the other departments like state police and city police, " she said.

Sgt. Ambrose and Deputy Summers with the Mon County Sheriff's Department (MCSD) picked up the totes from the CEOS office at Mylan Park Thursday afternoon — the officers left with their cruisers packed full of over 100 total tote bags.

MCSD Chief Deputy Mark Ralston said the totes are normally distributed in a variety of ways. First to road deputies to hand out during incidents or calls where the tote's contents would be beneficial.

"Or even to just make a child feel better depending on the circumstance, " he said.

Ralston said some of the bags are also kept at their office because they get a lot of walk-in complaints and reports where kids can be involved.

He said MCSD is happy to share the bags with other local departments because "they deal with the same things and the same kind of complaints that we do in their own jurisdiction, so we definitely distribute those, let them know they are here, and set them aside for them as well."

The fabric tote bags are sewn and filled by CEOS club members, and most are marked for either boys or girls.

CEOS members said they recently heard about one little girl who received a bag from an employee at the sheriff's department who "talked about how tickled the little girl was and how many times she thanked them — she just put that little bag over her shoulder when they left."

CEOS club member Debbie Blehschmidt said Mon County clubs participate in several other programs throughout the year, but the Totes for Tots program is special.

"We just feel that this is the one we feel passionate about doing every year, " she said.

WVCEOS is a voluntary, nonprofit organization that functions in cooperation with the WVU Extension Service.

According to the Extension Services website, WVCEOS is one of the largest educational organizations in the nation and over the past decade, members have performed more than 5.6 million hours of service for communities in need.