When Santa Claus climbed down the chimneys of some Charlotte homes to deliver gifts on Christmas Eve, he may have found he was beaten to the punch by almost a week by the city’s police department.
For the last 50 years, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Explorers Christmas Project has delivered gifts to kids of all ages ahead of Christmas — a tradition that continued on Dec. 19.
It’s “my favorite day,” said Ryan Botzenmayer, CMPD’s youth program coordinator who has been running the project for 10 years. “Taking the items to the families, seeing the joy, seeing the love, seeing them excited that CMPD is coming — they’re not expecting us — and they see that we’re there for a good reason, and it’s awesome.”
Botzenmayer said the program is funded by donations and was on track to deliver gifts to nearly 1,700 kids across 600 households this year. It’s a significant leap in growth from 1974, when the program started at Quail Hollow Country Club when now-retired Deputy Chief Glen Mowrey held a toy drive and got enough toys for 15 families.