Twenty middle school students from the Pasadena Boys and Girls Club spent Thursday afternoon shopping alongside Pasadena police officers at the Target store in East Pasadena, marking the 10th year of the “Shop with a Cop” program.
Each student received a $150 gift card, funded by the Rotary Club of Pasadena, to spend on school supplies, clothing and other back to school needs.
Mario Materena, director of community development and partnerships for the Pasadena Boys and Girls Club, said the students were chosen for their participation and leadership, along with a smaller group affected by the Eaton fire.
“They were selected for the kids that are showing good participation, good leadership,” Materena said. “And also most important, some of them, they were affected by the Eaton fire. So we have five or six kids that unfortunately were affected, so they were picked.”
Materena said the gift cards began as $100 contributions before rising to their current amount. “Now it’s $150,” he said.
Jose Sanchez, store director at the Target location, said the store has partnered with the Rotary Club and the police department on the event throughout the year.
“We love to put on these events for the community, the children in the community,” Sanchez said. “We love having them here and having them get some gift cards to shop for different things in the store and really see what the store’s about, but also we get to spend time with them and get to know them.”
Students socialized with the police officers and then were paired off to shop for school supplies, or whatever they needed, from sneakers to jeans. Target also provided an additional gift bag for each of the students.
Tammy Silver, president of the Rotary Club of Pasadena, said the event was created by former Rotary President Kathy Meagher more than a decade ago as a way to build connections between students and officers.
“We are not shopping, we are giving them money, but we’re allowing these students to connect with police officers to hopefully build bridges and build understanding from both sides,” Silver said. “So we’ve done it for over a decade.”
Silver said the middle school students, all members of the Pasadena Boys and Girls Club, are largely local to the city.
The Rotary Club’s community work extends beyond the shopping event. Silver said members have cleared weeds from cleared lots in Altadena for fire safety, prepared meals for Union Station and taken part in home repair projects for women in need.
More information on the Rotary Club of Pasadena is available at pasadenarotary.org.
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