Millbrook Police Department
Since 1996, the officers and support staff of the Millbrook Police Department, each year at Christmas, have pooled together their own money in an effort to help a family or two in need, be able to provide Christmas gifts for their children, who may not otherwise receive a gift underneath their tree. As our department grew to meet the needs of our growing city, we were able to do more, and those numbers increased each year.
In October 2015, Lieutenant Don Pugh approached me with the idea of what is now Operation Blue Santa. It entailed soliciting assistance from our local businesses, churches, civic organizations and individual citizens to donate funding and toys, which would be distributed to area children in need, from families that were either submitted through local churches or vetted through an application process at the police department. While I thought this to be an excellent idea, I had serious doubts that we’d be able to execute such a task in the limited time that we had prior to Christmas. Lieutenant Pugh and our staff assured me that we could accomplish the task at hand, so despite my concerns due to time constraints, I gave the approval…