ZEBULON - The community came together recently to make sure 13 local children have items of necessity and a little extra this Christmas season.

Individuals and businesses joined forces to raise funds for the Zebulon Police Department’s annual Shop with a Cop outing on Dec. 10.

Each year children are selected for Shop with a Cop by local teachers, counselors, principals and community figures, who in turn provide police with a list of names.

“They are candidates that meet the criteria for needing assistance at Christmastime,” Zebulon Lt. Scott Finch said. “We’ve had more and less than 13 children in the past so it’s kind of an average amount of kids.”

Those selected receive the opportunity to shop alongside a Zebulon Police officer at the Zebulon Walmart. Two hundred dollars are spent on each child each year, and the amount of children invited to participate in the outing is a function of how much funding is available.

“We try to make sure they have clothing and coats first,” Finch said. “Then we allow them to pick out their own Christmas present.”

Finch noted Shop with a Cop is one of the several annual events the police department participates in to show it wants to give back and help out in the community.

“It also shows us in a different light — that we care about the community and want to be involved in it. We’ve been doing this for the past six or seven years. It’s part of the community-oriented policing concepts,” Finch said.

Finch attends the outing every year and said what he gets out of it is the self satisfaction of sharing the holiday spirit with the Zebulon community.

He added the children enjoy Shop with a Cop as much, if not more, than the Zebulon officers do.

“The children that are selected are appreciative and have a good understanding of what we’re trying to do,” Finch said. “It’s good to see good people getting a hand.”