Tip a Cop fundraiser returns to Moses Lake
CHERYL SCHWEIZER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years AGO
Moses Lake Police Department Capt. Dave Sands fills a water glass during the 2021 Tip a Cop event. Tip a Cop 2022 is scheduled for Dec. 7.
FILE PHOTO
Senior Reporter Cheryl Schweizer is a journalist with more than 30 years of experience serving small communities in the Pacific Northwest. She began her post-high-school education at Treasure Valley Community College and enerned her journalism degree at Oregon State University. After working for multiple publications, she has settled down at the Columbia Basin Herald and has been a staple of the newsroom for more than a decade. Schweizer’s dedication to her communities and profession has earned her the nickname “The Baroness of Bylines.” She covers a variety of beats including health, business and various municipalities. | November 28, 2022 4:41 PM
MOSES LAKE — As a matter of fact, yes, those are police officers and sheriff’s deputies cleaning tables, delivering hamburgers and drinks and occasionally breaking into song. The fifth annual Tip a Cop is scheduled for 5:30 to 8 p.m. Dec. 7 at Rock Top Burgers & Brew, 930 N. Stratford Rd. in Moses Lake.
Deputies from the Grant County Sheriff’s Office and Moses Lake Police Department officers will be working the floor for that two-and-a-half-hour stretch, handing out menus and delivering meals and drinks. The tips they earn go to the Shop with a Cop program sponsored by each department.
Rock Top employees make a donation as well as sponsoring the event.
Not only do officers and deputies hand out those menus and clean those tables. In 2021 Ryan Rectenwald of the GCSO agreed to sing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” while filling water glasses. For a suitable tip, of course.
Shop with a Cop pairs children with GCSO and MLPD personnel and other participating agencies for an evening of Christmas shopping for the children, their families and friends. Traditionally the GCSO and MLPD work together on Shop With a Cop, and other local agencies sponsor events in other towns.
Children get a gift card from the sponsoring agency and a law enforcement officer, or sometimes a firefighter, as a shopping buddy. The children, their families and the personal shoppers all get pizza for dinner before they go shopping, and usually, there’s a visit from Santa too.
The GCSO and MLPD Shop with a Cop programs are supported by donations from the community and fundraisers sponsored by the agencies.
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