Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office to bless three local families
Sara Stadem | Editor
This year, the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office is doing something new to bring the Christmas spirit to a few families in the rural Minnehaha County area that could use some extra blessings this holiday season, according to Detective Maria Munkvold.
The Community Engagement Committee for the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office, made up of local Deputies, has come together to start a new event called ‘Christmas with Deputies.’ For the chosen families, this will consist of the children shopping with the Deputies while their parents are receiving groceries for their holiday season. In addition to that, the Deputies will be spending time with the families wrapping gifts and making Christmas ornaments.
“This idea came up when we were talking about how to have more county involvement so myself and Deputy Kardas (Deputy of Hartford) were discussing how we can do this more,” Det. Munkvold said. “We made a committee with some other Deputies and decided we should do something for the end of the year.”
Det. Munkvold continued to explain, “There is a ‘Shop with a Cop’ but that is something different and we started with that and wanted to go from there. We have a lot of kids out there that we know about because of calls that have come in and things that we know, so we know families could use some extra holiday cheer.”
The committee wanted to do a special project for the holiday season so it was decided to bless three families this year, in hopes to add more in the years to come. The committee reached out to the schools in the Minnehaha County and asked for assistance from their SROs, teachers and counselors along with DSS (Department of Social Services) to help identify specific families in the Minnehaha County that would or could benefit from this event, Det. Munkvold explained.
The schools sent a synopsis to the committee as to why they think a particular family would benefit from this event. Det. Munkvold explained from there, the committee met and went over the information the schools provided, which was anonymous, and the committee picked families based off needs, not who they might know.
The committee reached out to the Deputies Association requesting some financial assistance for this project, which was approved. This means, according to Det. Munkvold, the committee will be able to provide more for each family. In addition to the shopping and groceries, the committee is working to see about trying to get the chosen families set up with a tree that day as well. In the event that the families are able to receive a tree, the Deputies will also spend time with the families decorating their tree.
“Ultimately, this is to make sure that we are getting to spend time with them (the chosen families) so it’s more than just going shopping together. We also want to help them decorate their tree and just spend time with the families,” Det. Munkvold said.
As part of the request for the financial assistance, Det. Munkvold explained they requested for some funds to help the families for food for the holiday season. “We have spoken with some area grocery stores like the Garretson Food Center in Garretson and Sunshine in Hartford and they have agreed to help with this at a reduced price for the families.”
Det. Munkvold explained although the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s office has their SROs in area schools, the Sheriff’s Office wants to find ways for their other Deputies to get to engage with their students and communities and this is one way to do that.
“We are trying to be more vigilant and have more attention to these things. With Christmas coming up we were trying to come up with ways to help others in our community,” Det. Munkvold said. She continued, “We started to talk about what we could do and this just started to grow and it grew into something great. I’m really excited about this and we want to get it right this year so that we can keep continuing to do this every year.”
This event will take place on December 11 at the Wal-Mart on 60th Street North in Sioux Falls. Wal-Mart has agreed to host the event and will have everything set up for the activities. Additionally, there will also be other gifts that will be provided to the chosen families. However, Det. Munkvold said they aren’t revealing those at this time as they want it a surprise for the families.
“Our goal is to get our community members to know the Deputies better; that we are human too, not just the badge,” Det. Munkvold said. “It’s our initiative with this committee to bring us together more with the communities.”
What’s next? Over the next few weeks, Det. Munkvold said they will be finalizing the details for the event and will be reaching out to the families to make sure they want to be a part of “Christmas with Deputies.”
Det. Munkvold explained they are still looking for businesses that would like to partner with the Deputies Association in this cause for items such as food, financial, gift cards, etc. For more information or to donate, please contact Det. Munkvold at 605-367-4300.