Photo Gallery: Police and friends bring an early Christmas to Lemoore families

It all began Thursday (Dec. 19) at the Lemoore Civic Auditorium where Santa Claus, Lemoore’s men and women in blue, Lemoore Christian Aid and others invited local families for a bit of Christmas cheer as they visited with Santa and walked away with gifts and food boxes from the annual “Reasons for the Season” yearly gathering.

On Friday, Lemoore’s populace may have been wondering out loud why a long caravan of police vehicles, for about two hours, motored through their quaint little town. The truth is,  they’ve been doing this for years – at least since 1998 – delivering food and gifts to a selected group of families.

Many of the families were pre-selected with the help of local school districts. There were plenty of presents to go around as neighboring children collected a few gifts as well.

Thursday and Friday’s events were a glimpse of another side of law enforcement – a side that cares and one that helps build community relationships.

Soledad Perez, the Lemoore Police Department’s Community Services Officer, organized this year’s event. Well over 50 persons took part in Friday’s massive convoy that trekked from one end of Lemoore to the other as local volunteers, including Lemoore Christian Aid, law enforcement officers, VIPs (Volunteers in Policing) and Santa, rolled through the streets of Lemoore sometimes garnering quizzical looks from residents.