On Sunday, December 4th, the 10th Annual Cleveland Police Children’s Holiday Party was held at Tower City’s Skylight Concourse. A great time was had by all, including kids, parents, and other family members attending. Over 60 volunteers made the event super fun by providing crafts, face painting, games, food, popcorn, photo ops, characters, bouncy houses, a train ride, and a visit with Santa. Several thousand people attended the event. This was the first time the event was open to the general public. Golden tickets were given out to children in all the districts which entitled them to a gift and a meal in addition to all the fun activities.
Making our community’s children happy during the holidays has been a tradition of the Cleveland Division of Police for forty years. In the beginning, officers from the Second District would donate money to purchase gifts for needy kids within the district, Captain Joe Sadie expanded the program citywide a few years later. Upon his retirement, CLE PAL began the CPD Holiday Party thirteen years ago. Three of those years the party was suspended due to the pandemic but police officers continued to deliver toys and gift throughout the city. This year was the return of the big event.
David Torres and Joe Haggerty helped with toy delivery on Friday and over twenty volunteers helped unpack and prepare the toys on Saturday. A very special thanks to Tower City, Bedrock, KNK Entertainment, Party 411, Members of Old Angle Boxing Gym, The Former Ohio Boxers Association, The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, The American Luchadores, The Tour of Good Cheer Crew, Trash Fish Kayaking, The North East Ohio Medical University, The Hispanic Police Officers Association, The Division of Police Community Relations Unit, the Cleveland Police Law Enforcement Explorers, and the many police officers that gave of their time to make the event an amazing success.
We also can’t forget Santa for bringing his magic to all the children all these many years!