Christmas giving brings together a community like nothing else.

“When you see the Indianapolis Metro Police Department take 34 kids shopping from all around Indianapolis and Salem’s Shop With A Cop is able to help 200 children, that says a lot,” said Salem Police Department Major Detective Scott Ratts.

“Our community really gives and that makes it a really good thing. We live in a great community and it’s our community who comes together for this,” Said Ratts on WSLM’s Coffee Club program Tuesday morning. 

Christmas is going to be a lot brighter and happier for nearly 500 children in Washington County thanks to the Christmas Assistance Program, headed up by Amy Crane and Southern Hills Church.

“We had 499 kids in the program,” said Crane. “We gave 100 kids to Shop With A Cop, 101 to Colie Clause (John Jones GM City’s program), 90 to the Salvation Army and the rest were taken care of by numerous churches, businesses and individuals!”

According to Ratts, the Shop With A Cop event was held at Salem’s new Walmart this year.

“We had 100 names and actually took 86 children shopping and had volunteers shop for the other 14,” said Ratts. “Walmart gave us 10 percent off at the end, which amounted to about $1600.”

Spending about $100 on smaller children and $160 on teens, the focus is on clothing. 

“We try to spend $130 on clothing and $30 on a toy,” said Ratts. “I’ve gone to pick up kids before and they’ve come out and I said, you need to go in and get a coat and the little girl said I don’t have a coat. It made me feel about an inch tall.”

The focus is on underwear, socks, gloves, coats and shoes.

He said police would be buying for an additional 100 children in the coming week. “We’ve been extremely blessed this year,” he said, regarding donations. 

Those children will be taken care of through Linck’s Clothing in Salem. “A lot of that will be done with Rita Links. I give her a name and a list. She’ll get it all together – clothes, shoes and toys. She really takes care of us on that and I just need to come and pick it up.” 

Asked if there needed more donations and help, Ratts said he could use help with deliveries.

“Actually, tomorrow, I was going to do some deliveries on Wednesday at 4p. If anyone would like to help, meet me at the SPD,” Ratts said.  “Just show up with a car and a little bit of gas and the willingness to go out and make a kids day.”  He said there were 35 bags to deliver.

The event brings together not only the community, but all divisions of law enforcement: Salem Police, Pekin Town Marshall, Washington County Sheriff’s Department, EMTs, Conservation Officers and State Police, Fire Departments.

“You see a whole different person watching them shop for these children,” said Coffee Club host Becky White.

Ratts noted, “It’s a lot of fun. I have a blast doing it. Eric and Tera Mills took the reigns this year. They did an awesome job. Eric’s still working on some things. We have the entire sally port filled with packages to be delivered.”

Mills even brought Brigo, his K-9 to the event last Saturday.

In addition to law enforcement officials on hand to help, there were cheerleaders from Salem, East Washington and West Washington.

Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Strange said, “Without the volunteers and without our community this isn’t possible. When you hear Shop with a Cop and you hear someone is having an event for Shop With a Cop….it’s about giving.”

Ratts said he estimated the Shop With A Cop event has been going on for about 30 years and hads its origin with former Salem officers Marlon Robinson and Eugene Helms. 

Jim…we’re just one of several organizations who work through CAP…without Amy and countless hours put into this, it couldn’t be done.

Crane said applications are planned to be sent out next year around November 2^nd-4^th. For more information, you can reach Crane at Southern Hills Church at 812-883-1637

Since 1991, the Indiana State Police Alliance, through its Cops for Kids program, has been able to assist our Indiana youth by funding programs around the state.

The ISPA prides itself in building relationships between Indiana’s youth and our member Indiana State Troopers.

Building better and stronger communities by teaming local Troopers with the youth in their communities is a benefit that is priceless.  

In 2016, ISPA Cops for Kids has assisted the following programs:

• New Carlisle Wesleyan Church Youth Program – New Carlisle
• South Ripley Lady Raider Basketball Program – Versailles
• Indiana Raptors Youth Travel Baseball – Greenville
• Rochester Youth Wrestling – Rochester
• Mount Vernon (Posey) Youth Soccer Club – Mt. Vernon
• Elite Softball Club – Kendallville
• Ice All Stars Cheerleading – Westfield
• Trooper Patrick Bartram Christmas for Kids – Indianapolis
• Mount Vernon (Hancock) H. S. Jr Varsity Volleyball – Fortville
• Pendleton Youth Basketball – Pendleton
• Wapahani Girls Soccer – Wapahani
• Crown Point Panthers Youth Football – Crown Point

The next round of grants will be given in March 2017 with applications being received in February of 2017. If you wish to make a donation to assist the ISPA and its Cops for Kids program, please contact the ISPA office by phone, 316-626- 0929, by mail at 1415 Shelby St, Indianapolis, 46203, or by email at wayneflick@infianasfinest.com.

A big announcement was made for Indiana in regards to women’s golf Tuesday morning on WSLM’s Coffee Club by French Lick Resort Marketing Manager Steve Rondinaro. 

French Lick Resort will host the first-ever Senior LPGA Championship. The Championship will be next summer July 10, 2017 through July 12, 2017. The winner will get $600,000.

The Championship will be part of the Legends Tour, which is made up of veteran LPGA players who are 45 and older.

 The LPGA Tour will launch its inaugural Senior LPGA Championship in July at The Pete Dye Course at the French Lick Resort. The 54-hole event will be televised live on the Golf Channel and feature a mix of 81 golfers from the LPGA, the World Golf Hall of Fame and former major championship winners.

The event will run from July 10-12. Golfers will compete for a share of a $600,000 purse. The course has previously hosted high-profile tournaments, including the PGA Professional National Championship, Big Ten Championships, The Legends of the LPGA and the 2015 Senior PGA Championship.

LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan says “this is a landmark event for the LPGA because it provides a larger platform to celebrate the legends of the game. With the USGA’s recently announced U.S. Senior Women’s Open and now our event, the women who forged the way for the current generation will now have two major championships each year.” The LPGA says the multi-year agreement includes hosting the event in French Lick and televising it on the Golf Channel.

Bloomington-based Cook Group owns the French Lick Resort.

Chairman Steve Ferguson says “French Lick is proud to host such a prestigious event. We have long supported women’s golf and to now be part of the first major championship for senior women is indeed an honor. We look forward to a great relationship with the LPGA and an outstanding Championship.”

The event is part of a busy summer for the French Lick Resort. July 7-9, The Donald Ross Course will play host to a new 54-hole Symetra Tour event.

This morning, Monday, December 12, 2016, the Bolt For The Heart (BFTH) foundation continued to deliver on the promise to equip Indiana State Police patrol vehicles with lifesaving Automatic External Defibrillators (AED) with the gift of 95 additional AED’s. 

This was in addition to the more than 50 AED’s presented to ISP in March of this year.

At the presentation event, held at the State Fairgrounds’ Indiana Farm Bureau Building, the Superintendent of the Indiana State Police, Doug Carter, thanked Pierre Twer, founder of the BFTH organization. 

Additional speakers present at today’s donation event were members of the various organizations that made today’s donation event possible: Jon Goble, president of IU Health North Central Region, Greg Dedinsky MD, cardiac surgeon from Columbus Regional Health, and Lt. David Kirkham, president of the Indiana State Police Alliance.
What truly helped bring home the importance and significance of the donation of AED’s was the personal story story shared by Pastor Daniel Schumm, of Cornerstone Lutheran Church, Carmel. 

His recounting of how an AED being present at the right place, and at the right time, cemented in everyone’s mind the lifesaving capability of an AED when it’s readily available.
More About Bolt For The Heart
The donation of the AED’s to the state police was borne the result of an experience Pierre Twer had while running in the 2010 Boston Marathon.

During that race Pierre witnessed another marathon runner suffer a cardiac arrest. That runner was saved by an AED.

This inspired Pierre to collaborate with Heart Reach Carmel and establish the Bolt for the Heart 5K Family Thanksgiving Run, of which 2016 was the fifth year for the run and the second consecutive year the Indiana State Police was the primary recipient of the AED’s. Since its inception, this 5K run has grown from 41 runners to more than 2,800 that participated this past Thanksgiving Day.

Each year since the run started 100% of the proceeds have been used to purchase AED’s for donation to not for profit organizations.

In 2015, the Board of Directors of Bolt for the Heart identified the Indiana State Police as the recipient of AED’s from funds raised in the 2015 Thanksgiving Day run, which ISP Supt. Carter was also a registered runner. In fact Supt. Carter ran the entire 5K run in full state police uniform!

At the conclusion of the press conference attending troopers were issued their AED’s and placed window stickers on their patrol cars to easily identify the police vehicle was equipped with an AED.

History & Source of AED’s Donated to ISP Through BFTH:
2014 = Bolt Donation Day                                           5 AED’s
2015 = Bolt for the Heart Race, Presented in 2016   55 AED’s
2016 = IU Health Donation Day                                15 AED’s
2016 = IU Health Additional Surprise                       50 AED’s
2016 = Indiana State Police Alliance                         10 AED’s
2016 = IU Health Community Engagement Dept      30 AED’s
2016 = Bolt for the Heart Race                                  50 AED’s
                                                                                    215 AED’s