Sheriff's Office Shops For A Cause

For Deputy Jason Cordell Thursday's stroll through Toys-R-Us in Greenville wasn't part of his regular duties in the community.

The Greenville County Sheriff's Office's Community Patrol Unit did some Christmas shopping this morning, spending some $2,000 on toys for children at the Meyer Center For Special Children.

The Meyer Center, established in 1954, provides specialized early childhood education assistance and therapy to young children with disabilities and developmental problems.

Cordell has something of a vested interest in the center.

"My son Phoenix was born in March of 2009. He was born 13 weeks premature, and obviously he had some developmental delay due to being born so severely premature," Cordell said.

Cordell's son receives help at the Meyer Center, and starting last year, deputies within community patrol began visiting and mentoring the special needs children there.

"And then before last Christmas, Barbara Martin (assistant director) asked if i would be willing and able to raise money to buy the kids at the center Christmas gifts," Cordell said. "Local businesses had been helping out with it in previous years, but they couldn't do it last year due to difficult economic times."

In 2010, Cordell and the Sheriff's Office were able to raise some $2,000 to buy toys for the kids at the center. This year, in just a matter of weeks of fundraising (with fundraising efforts hitting full swing by October), exactly $8,000 was raised from private donors and local businesses.

Roughly $2,000 of that was used Thursday to purchase toys at the Toys-R-Us off of Haywood Road in Greenville. The rest will be directly donated to Meyer Center to assist with operating costs, Cordell said.

"The last few years have been really tough for us with the recession," said Louise Anthony, executive director for the Meyer Center. "We used to have to get the toys ourselves, but now one of our fathers, Mr. Cordell, is a policeman and has taken it upon himself to buy the Christmas toys."

The sizable donation to assist with operating costs is greatly needed, Anthony said.

"It helps children to walk, talk, be able to sit up and eat," Anthony said. "I can't put into words what this money does for the Meyer Center."

The gifts will be given to the children during a Christmas party on Dec. 9.