C.O.P.S. for Christmas program and parish Battered Women’s Shelter get donations of stuffed animals to give to families

Posted: December 9th, 2016 | Filed under: SBSO News

Michael B. Chutz, who donated stuffed Teddy Bears to the Sheriff’s Office C.O.P.S. for Christmas program which helps several families with presents for children, a tree or food for the holidays, is shown with officers with the program. At left is Sgt. Shannon Cooper and at right is Maj. Angela Huff.


Michael B. Chutz holds up a bag of stuffed Teddy Bears he donated to the C.O.P.S. for Christmas program at the Sheriff’s Office.


If it’s December, Michael B. Chutz is in the Christmas giving mood and the Sheriff’s Office’s C.O.P.S. for Christmas program and the parish Battered Women’s Shelter are the beneficiaries.

This is the fourth Christmas season that Chutz, a Reserve Division sheriff’s deputy and a volunteer and board member of the Kiwanis Club of St. Bernard-Arabi and its foundation, has been buying and donating stuffed Teddy Bears for children.

Funding comes from the Michael B. Chutz Fund in the St. Bernard Kiwanis Foundation.

“This is the fourth Christmas I have donated stuffed animals to the St. Bernard Battered Women’s Shelter for the children of the families there and the third year to the C.O.P.S. for Christmas program with the St. Bernard Sheriff Office,’’ said Chutz, who is retired.

The C.O.P.S. for Christmas program, which started in 2010, finds families who need held through social agencies and donates presents for the children and a Christmas tree or food for the holidays for the families. The Battered Women’s Shelter, as its name suggests, helps women and their families who have been the victim of domestic problems.

Chutz donates six dozen of the Teddy Bears to help the two causes.

Whatever the C.O.P.S. for Christmas program doesn’t use goes to the Sheriff’s Office Juvenile Division or Reserve Division for deputies to give to children they encounter in the course of their duties.

“I enjoy giving back to St. Bernard and bringing a little joy to a child at Christmas,’’ said Chutz, who said both the Battered Women’s Shelter and C.O.P.S. for Christmas are among many worthwhile causes in the parish.

“Merry Christmas to St. Bernard and I hope these little gifts of mine spark others to pay it forward,’’ Chutz said. “Thanks for all the fond memories of growing up in Da Parish.’

Anyone interested in donating to the C.O.P.S. for Christmas program can call the St Bernard Sheriff Office at (504) 271-2501 or to donate to the Battered Women’s Shelter call (504) 277-3177.